Abstract
Except for excision repair cross-complementing 1 (ERCC1), mRNA expression of the remaining ERCC genes has not been investigated in the prognosis of gastric cancer (GC). The present study aimed to explore the mRNA expression and prognostic values of each member of the ERCC family in GC patients by using the Kaplan-Meier (KM) plotter tool. The details of each ERCC family member were entered into a database and GC patients were separated into high and low expression to draw survival plots using the KM plotter. In the present study, we observed that high expression of ERCC1 mRNA was significantly associated with longer overall survival (OS) for all GC patients (hazard ratio [HR]=0.77, 95% confidence intervals [CI]=0.63-0.95, P=0.016) compared with low expression. High expression of ERCC4 and ERCC6 mRNA indicated a worse OS for all GC patients (HR=1.28, 95% CI=1.02-1.6, P=0.035 and HR=1.25, 95% CI=1.02-1.54, P=0.029, respectively) and especially for patients with intestinal-type GC (HR=1.87, 95% CI=1.26-2.79, P=0.0018 and HR=1.62, 95% CI=1.04-2.54, P=0.033, respectively). High ERCC8 mRNA expression indicated a worse OS for all GC patients (HR=1.34, 95% CI=1.02-1.76, P=0.034) and especially for patients with diffuse-type GC (HR=2.25, 95% CI=1.36-3.75, P=0.0013). In conclusion, our findings indicate that ERCC4, ERCC6, and ERCC8 may be potential biomarkers for GC prognosis and may serve as potential therapeutic targets for GC. However, these findings still need further verification.