Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Dec 24, 2021; 12(12): 1202-1214
Published online Dec 24, 2021. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v12.i12.1202
Increased tensin 4 expression is related to the histological type of gastric cancer
Marcin Nizioł, Justyna Zińczuk, Konrad Zaręba, Katarzyna Guzińska-Ustymowicz, Anna Pryczynicz
Marcin Nizioł, Katarzyna Guzińska-Ustymowicz, Anna Pryczynicz, Department of General Pathomorphology, Medical University of Bialystok, Białystok 15-089, Poland
Justyna Zińczuk, Department of Clinical Laboratory Diagnostics, Medical University of Białystok, Bialystok 15-089, Poland
Konrad Zaręba, The Second Clinical Department of General and Gastroenterological Surgery, Medical University of Bialystok, Białystok 15-089, Poland
Author contributions: Nizioł M and Pryczynicz A contributed to the conceptualization and data curation; Nizioł M, Zińczuk J, Zaręba K, Guzińska-Ustymowicz K and Pryczynicz A contributed to the methodology and investigation; Nizioł M contributed to the resources, writing—original draft preparation, visualization, project administration and funding acquisition; Pryczynicz A contributed to the writing—review and editing, supervision; all authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Supported by the Medical University of Bialystok, No. SUB/1/DN/20/002/3314.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Medical University of Bialystok. The research was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the Medical University of Bialystok, permission no.: R-I-002/29/2019.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors have nothing to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work noncommercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is noncommercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Anna Pryczynicz, PhD, Associate Professor, Postdoc, Department of General Pathomorphology, Medical University of Bialystok, Kilińskiego 1, Białystok 15-089, Poland. anna.pryczynicz@umb.edu.pl
Received: April 15, 2021
Peer-review started: April 15, 2021
First decision: June 17, 2021
Revised: June 29, 2021
Accepted: November 18, 2021
Article in press: November 18, 2021
Published online: December 24, 2021
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Gastric cancer (GC) is still one of the most common malignant neoplasms worldwide in terms of incidence and cancer motility. The development of GC is a multistage process. Tensin 4 (TNS4) belongs to the tensin family. This protein can participate in the transmission of intracellular signals. TNS4 plays an important role in biological processes connected with carcinogenesis, such as proliferation, migration, cell adhesion and invasiveness. It is very important to search for new biomarkers that could help to diagnose GC at the early stages of its development.

Research motivation

We wanted to evaluate the role of the TNS4 protein in the development of GC. This protein may be a promising biomarker in the diagnosis of GC at the early stages of its development.

Research objectives

The study objective was to show the expression of TNS4 in GC tissues and assess the relationship between protein expression and clinical and pathological parameters and the overall survival rate of patients.

Research methods

In our study, we used immunohistochemistry to evaluate the expression of the TNS4 protein. The research was conducted on a group of 89 patients.

Research results

We observed that higher TNS4 expression was more often observed in GCs with a larger diameter (P = 0.040). Our results also showed that an increase in TNS4 expression was more frequently observed in tumors without mucinous components than in tumors from mucosal cancers (P = 0.023). Furthermore, higher TNS4 expression was demonstrated in moderately differentiated tumors (P = 0.002). Increased TNS4 expression was also noted in the intestinal type of GC according to Lauren’s classification (P = 0.020). No significant correlation was found between the expression of TNS4 and the overall survival rate of patients.

Research conclusions

The expression of TNS4 was significantly higher in tumors with a diameter of ≥ 5 cm, of a moderately differentiated type of GC without a mucinous component, and of the intestinal type according to Lauren’s classification. Increased levels of TNS4 expression are linked to the histological type of GC with a better prognosis.

Research perspectives

It is possible to develop this study with cell line methods. It will be possible to investigate the potential role of TNS4 in GC cell proliferation.