Recent advances in gastric cancer early diagnosis

Gastric cancer(GC) remains an important cause of cancer death worldwide with a high mortality rate due to the fact that the majority of GC cases are diagnosed at an advanced stage when the prognosis is poor and the treatment options are limited. Unfortunately, the existing circulating biomarkers for GC diagnosis and prognosis display low sensitivity and specificity and the GC diagnosis is based only on the invasive procedures such as upper digestive endoscopy. There is a huge need for less invasive or non-invasive tests but also highly specific biomarkers in case of GC. Body fluids such as peripheral blood, urine or saliva,stomach wash/gastric juice could be a source of specific biomarkers, providing important data for screening and diagnosis in GC. This review summarized the recently discovered circulating molecules such as microRNAs, long non-coding RNAs, circular RNAs, which hold the promise to develop new strategies for early diagnosis of GC.

High plasma levels of COL10A1 are associated with advanced tumor stage in gastric cancer patients

BACKGROUND Gastric cancer(GC)remains an aggressive malignancy with a high rate of mortality,being the third leading cause of cancer-related death.More than one million newly diagnosed cases and 782685 deaths due to GC were reported in 2018.GC is characterized by limited effective treatment options and the lack of consistent biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of these patients.The discovery of new biomarkers useful in the early diagnosis of GC is mandatory.AIM To evaluate the potential of COL10A1 as a circulating biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma patients.METHODS Plasma and tissue obtained from 49 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma have been used in exploring the expression of COL10A1.Real-time PCR and western blot techniques were used to evaluate COL10A1 level in gastric tumor tissue compared to normal adjacent tissue.The circulating level of COL10A1 was also evaluated by ELISA in plasma of gastric adenocarcinoma patients.Survival analysis was made in order to evaluate the potential of COL10A1 as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of gastric adenocarcinoma patients.RESULTS Our results showed a significant increase in COL10A1 gene expression and protein levels in gastric tumor tissue compared to adjacent normal tissue(P<0.05).COL10A1 seems to show an elevated expression from the beginning of carcinogenesis,in the early stages,and its increased level remains elevated during cancer progression.A significant increase of COL10A1 plasma level in gastric adenocarcinoma patients was also identified.Moreover,increased COL10A1 plasma level was associated with poor survival of the patients.Plasma COL10A1 performed a diagnostic value in GC with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve(AUC)of 0.9171(P=0.0002),sensitivity of 87.76%,and specificity of 100.0%.Furthermore,this study demonstrated the potential role of plasma COL10A1 in the early detection of GC,as in the early stage,we obtained an AUC of 0.8789(P=0.0030),sensitivity of 81.25%,and specificity of 100.0%.CONCLUSION Circulating expression level of COL10A1 is significantly increased in gastric adenocarcinoma patients being associated with poor survival and is a potential biomarker for early detection of GC.