Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of thymidine phosphorylase expression in gastric carcinoma.

Tumor growth depends on angiogenesis. Thymidine phosphorylase (dThdPase) is identical to platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor (PD-ECGF), and has angiogenic activity. We investigated the expression of dThdPase in 116 gastric carcinoma tissue samples by immunohistochemical staining, and assessed whether its expression was correlated with clinicopathological factors or with the prognosis. dThdPase expression was correlated with clinicopathological factors and may be a good prognostic indicator for gastric carcinoma. To determine whether dThdPase expression was a prognostic factor that was independent of the depth of invasion or lymph node metastasis, we conducted a survival analysis using Cox's proportional hazard model. This analysis revealed that dThdPase expression was the most significant prognostic indicator and was useful for predicting the outcome of gastric carcinoma.