Clinical significance of serum protease-activated receptor-1 levels in gastric cancer patients.

Protease-activated receptor-1 (PAR-1) has a significant role in the pathogenesis of various malignancies and its expression mainly affects the survivals of cancer patients. The aim of the present study was to determine the clinical significance of the serum concentrations of PAR-1 in patients with gastric carcinoma. A total of 63 pathologically confirmed gastric cancer patients were enrolled in this study, with a median age of 62 years. Serum PAR-1 concentrations were determined by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method and no significant difference in the baseline serum PAR-1 concentrations was found between patients and normal controls (P=0.5). The investigated clinical variables, including patient age, gender, localization of lesion, histology, grade of pathology, disease stage and serum tumor markers (lactate dehydrogenase, carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9) were not correlated with serum PAR-1 levels (P>0.05). Furthermore, no association was identified between the serum PAR-1 level and chemotherapy responsiveness (P=0.43). Serum PAR-1 level also had no prognostic role for survival (P=0.27). In conclusion, the serum PAR-1 concentration has no diagnostic, predictive and prognostic values in gastric cancer patients.