Abstract
Proteolytic enzymes play a key role in the metastatic stage of gastric cancer (GC). In this study, we aimed to identify the serine proteases (SPs) and their inhibitors (serpins) as related to GC. The gene expression profiles of 40 cases of GC were initially detected by cDNA microarray. The results of the differentially expressed SPs and their inhibitor genes from the microarrays were confirmed by real-time PCR. The status of the immunohistochemical staining of the confirmed genes in patients with complete data was used to develop a survival prediction model. Finally, the prediction model was tested in different groups of GC patients. As a result, seven genes, SERPINB5, KLK10, KLK11, HPN, SPINK1, SERPINA5 and PRSS8, were considered as GC progression-related genes. A survival prediction model including the immunohistochemical scores of three genes and the tumor node metastasis (TNM) score was developed: Survival time (months) = 88.8607 + 2.6395 SERPINB5 - 12.0772 KLK10 + 13.7562 KLK11 - 7.0318 TNM. In conclusion, SERPINB5, KLK10, KLK11, HPN, SPINK1, SERPINA5 and PRSS8 were GC progression-related SPs or serpin genes. The model consisting of the expression profiles of three genes extracted from the microarray study accompanied by the TNM score accurately predicts surgery-related survival of GC patients.