EXPRESSIONS OF BCL10 PROTEIN AND APC IN GASTRIC MALT LYMPHOMA AND THEIR CORRELATIONS WITH CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS

You Feng^{1, *}, Jijin Wu²

¹Department of Oncology, West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Chengdu, PR China - ²Department of Oncology, Kunming Fourth People's Hospital/Yunnan Kungang Hospital, Kunming, PR China

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the expressions of the B-cell lymphoma 10 (BCL10) protein and the adenomatous polyposis coli gene (APG) in gastric MALT lymphoma and their correlations with other clinicopathological characteristics. 

Methods: Between January 2013 and May 2014, 45 cases of gastric MALT lymphoma tissues and 20 cases of normal lymphoid tissues were archived in the Department of Pathology at our hospital for immunohistochemistry experiments. The expression levels of BCL10 and APC in gastric MALT lymphoma and normal lymphoid tissue were examined, as well as the expression levels of BCL10 and APC and gastric MALT lymphoma and their correlations with clinicopathological characteristics and the prognosis. 

Results: The positive expression rate of BCL10 in gastric MALT lymphoma was 82.22% (33/45), which was significantly higher than that of BCL10 in normal lymphoid tissues, which was 60% (12/20) (p<.05). The positive expression rate of APC in gastric MALT lymphoma was 37.77% (17/45), which was significantly lower than the 90% (10/20) of APC in normal lymphoid tissues (p<.05). The BCL10 expression level was correlated with the depth of invasion, clinical stage and lymph node metastasis in patients with gastric MALT lymphoma (p<.05). The expression level of APC was correlated with the clinical stage and lymph node metastasis of patients with gastric MALT lymphoma (p<.05). There was no correlation between [WHAT] and the depth of invasion. Neither [WHAT] nor [WHAT] were related to the patient's age, gender or tumor morphology (p > .05). The five-year survival rate of patients in the BCL10 positive expression group was 42.42% (14/33), which was significantly lower than that of the BCL10 negative expression group, which was 75.00% (9/12) (p<.05). The five-year survival rate of patients in the APC positive expression group was 76.47% (13/17), which was also significantly higher than that of the BCL10 negative expression group, which was 35.71% (10/28) (P<0.05). Through a COX analysis, the clinical stage, lymph node metastasis, BCL10 expression, and APC expression were determined to all independently affect the prognosis of gastric MALT lymphoma patients. 

Conclusion: The expression level of BCL10 increased and the expression level of APC decreased in gastric MALT lymphoma cases. Both of them can be important reasons for the progression of gastric MALT lymphoma and may provide a new target for the treatment of the condition in the future.