Abstract
Glycolytic pyruvate kinase isoenzyme type M2 (M2-PK) plays a key role in tumor metabolism and energy production. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is critical in regulating angiogenesis which is an essential process required for tumor growth and metastasis. These two genes may function in accordance with tumor development. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the expression of M2-PK and VEGF, and their association with clinicopathological features in patients with advanced gastric cancer. Expression of M2-PK and VEGF were examined in 142 cases of paraffin-embedded tissue blocks from patients with advanced gastric cancer. M2-PK expression was found to strongly correlate with that of VEGF (r = 0.718). In addition, expression of M2-PK and VEGF correlates with tumor size (p = 0.0001, and p = 0.0017, respectively), depth of invasion (p = 0.0024, and p = 0.0261, respectively), and lymph node metastasis (p = 0.036, and p = 0.028, respectively). The high expression levels of M2-PK and VEGF may indicate poor prognosis in patients with advanced gastric cancer.