RESEARCH ARTICLE Prognostic significance of ADAM17 expression in patients with gastric cancer who underwent curative gastrectomy D. Aydin 1 • A. Bilici 2 • D. Yavuzer 3 • U. Kefeli 4 • A. Tan 3 • O. Ercelep 1 • A. Mert 1 • S. Yuksel 1 • M. Ozcelik 1 • D. Isik 1 • H. Surmeli 1 • H. Odabasi 1 • M. Aliustaoglu 1 Received: 30 January 2015 / Accepted: 6 March 2015 Ó Federacio ´n de Sociedades Espan ˜olas de Oncologı ´a (FESEO) 2015 Abstract Backgrounds A disintegrin and metalloproteinase (ADAM) 17 has been indicated to be an indispensable regulator of cellular events from proliferation to migration. Although prognostic importance of ADAM17 expression has been investigated in several tumours, its clinical utility as a useful prognostic molecular marker remains unclear in gastric cancer. In the current study, we evaluated the ex- pression of ADAM17 and its prognostic significance in gastric cancer patients after curative gastrectomy. Methods The prognostic significance of ADAM17 ex- pression was analysed immunohistochemically in 156 pa- tients with gastric cancer who had undergone curative gastrectomy, and the relationship between its expression and clinicopathological factors was also evaluated. Results High ADAM17 expression was detected in 79 patients (51 %), whereas low expression was found in 77 cases (49 %). There was significant correlation between gender, histology, lymph node metastasis, vascular inva- sion, the presence of recurrence and high ADAM17 expression. Recurrence in patients with high ADAM17 expression was significantly higher than that for patients with low ADAM17 expression (p = 0.032). The median disease-free survival (DFS) time for patients with tumours with high ADAM17 expression was worse than that of patients with tumours with low ADAM17 expression (16.6 vs. 44.2 months, p = 0.004). In addition, patients with low ADAM17 expression had a higher median overall survival (OS) (49.6 vs. 26.9 months, p = 0.019) compared to those with high ADAM17 expression. Multivariate analysis indicated that the rate of ADAM17 expression was an in- dependent prognostic factor for DFS, in addition to the already known important clinicopathological prognostic indicator. But the prognostic importance of ADAM17 ex- pression could not be proved by multivariate analysis for OS. Conclusions The potential value of ADAM17 expression as a useful molecular marker in gastric cancer progression should be evaluated comprehensively; it may predict re- currence and poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer after curative resection. Keywords ADAM17 Á Gastric cancer Á Prognosis Introduction Gastric cancer remains one of the most common cancers and causes of cancer-related deaths globally [1, 2]. Although the prevalence has decreased in recent years, the expected recovery in the disease’s prognosis has not been improved. The most important causes of mortality in gas- tric cancer patients include tumour invasion and metastases after gastrectomy. This process is a multi-stepped complex process, including adhesion molecules, proteolytic This study was presented in ASCO, 2015, Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium, in a poster session. January 15–17, 2015, San Francisco, California. & D. Aydin dinceraydin79@yahoo.com 1 Department of Medical Oncology, Dr. Lutfi Kırdar Kartal Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey 2 Department of Medical Oncology, Medical Faculty, Istanbul Medipol University, Istanbul, Turkey 3 Department of Pathology, Dr. Lutfi Kirdar Education and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey 4 Department of Medical Oncology, Kocaeli University School of Medicine, Kocaeli, Turkey 123 Clin Transl Oncol DOI 10.1007/s12094-015-1283-1