Expression of vimentin in gastric cancer: a possible indicator for prognosis.

Expression of vimentin in gastric cancer was immunohistologically examined in 85 surgically resected specimens and evaluated in terms of various clinicopathological features. Vimentin expression was more pronounced in gastric cancers of more advanced type and in those exhibiting a higher degree of infiltrative growth, lymph node involvement and vascular invasion. These results indicate that vimentin expression by gastric cancer might be related to the invasion and metastatic process of cancer cells and could be useful as a prognostic indicator for patients with gastric cancer.