TY - JOUR T1 - Clinicopathological Correlations of Autophagy-related Proteins LC3, Beclin 1 and p62 in Gastric Cancer JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 129 LP - 136 VL - 36 IS - 1 AU - GO MASUDA AU - MASAKAZU YASHIRO AU - KISHU KITAYAMA AU - YUICHIRO MIKI AU - HIROAKI KASASHIMA AU - HARUHITO KINOSHITA AU - TAMAMI MORISAKI AU - TATSHUNARI FUKUOKA AU - TSUYOSHI HASEGAWA AU - KATSUNOBU SAKURAI AU - TAKAHIRO TOYOKAWA AU - NAOSHI KUBO AU - HIROAKI TANAKA AU - KAZUYA MUGURUMA AU - OHIRA MASAICHI AU - KOSEI HIRAKAWA Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/36/1/129.abstract N2 - Aim: This study evaluated the clinicopathological significance of autophagy, an intracellular degradation system, in gastric cancer. Materials and Methods: The expression levels of three autophagy-related proteins, namely light chain 3 (LC3), Beclin 1 and p62, were analyzed by immunohistochemistry using samples from 510 patients with primary gastric cancer. Results: LC3, Beclin 1, and p62 expression was positive in 79 (15.5%), 126 (24.7%) and 251 (49.2%) out of 510 carcinomas, respectively. Autophagy was defined when samples were positive for at least two out of the three proteins. Autophagy-positive cases were 113 (22.1%) out of the 510. Autophagy determined by LC3, Beclin 1, and p62 significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis, vessel invasion, and hepatic metastasis. A Kaplan–Meier survival curve showed that autophagy was significantly associated with poor survival of patients with gastric cancer, especially for those with disease at stage I. Multivariate analysis indicated that autophagy was an independent prognostic factor. Conclusion: Autophagy promotes the progression of gastric cancer at an early clinical stage. ER -