LGR5 is a promising biomarker for patients with stage I and II gastric cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate Leucine-rich repeat-containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) expressions in gastric cancer and to evaluate its clinical significance.

METHODS: LGR5 expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in 257 gastric cancer patients after surgery. The relationships between LGR5 expression and clinicopathological features and patients prognosis were statistically analyzed.

RESULTS: The expression of LGR5 was significantly higher in gastric cancers as a cancer stem cell marker than in adjacent normal tissues (P<0.001), and more frequently in patients with intestinal type, well-moderate differentiation and stage I and II (P<0.05). Although we found gastric cancer patients with LGR5 positive expression had a poorer prognosis, it didn't meet statistical significance (P>0.05). LGR5 negative expression was significantly related to the favorable overall survival in stage I and II gastric cancer patients (P<0.05). Furthermore, patients with high LGR5 expression tended to be more likely to get progression and have poorer progress-free survival (P<0.05). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that LGR5 expression was an independent factor of overall survival for the patients with stage I and II gastric cancer (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that LGR5 may play an important role in tumorigenesis and progression and would be a powerful marker to predict the prognosis of patients with stage I and II gastric cancer.