HMGB2 promotes the malignancy of human gastric cancer and indicates poor survival outcome.

HMGB2 is an important protein in carcinogenesis. However, little is known about the specific role of HMGB2 in gastric cancer. In the present study, HMGB2 expression was evaluated in 198 primary gastric cancer tissues and their adjacent nontumor controls. The correlation between HMGB2 expression and clinico-pathological features and survival was assessed. The effect of HMGB2 on cell proliferation, invasion, and glycolysis was examined in vitro. The expression of HMGB2 was significantly increased in human gastric cancer when compared with nontumor tissues (P < .001). High HMGB2 expression correlated with large tumor size (P = .001), advanced T stage (P = .007), and presence of lymph node metastasis (P = .004). Moreover, high HMGB2 expression was validated as an independent prognostic factor in both univariate and multivariate analyses (P < .05). Experimentally, silencing HMGB2 expression by stable transfected shRNA significantly decreased the proliferation, invasion, and glycolysis of gastric cancer cells. In conclusion, HMGB2 is a novel prognostic biomarker for survival in gastric cancer, and knockdown HMGB2 expression in gastric cancer cells attenuated proliferation and invasion, and impaired glycolysis in gastric cancer cells. Hence, HMGB2 may serve as a new biomarker and a potential therapeutic target in gastric cancer.