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Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths, with limited improvement in its clinical outcome worldwide. Aberrant mucin-type O-glycosylation is a critical event widespread in the development of GC. Polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases (GALNTs) regulate the initial step and determine the sites of mucin-type O-glycoprotein biosynthesis. GALNT6 has considerable potential as a biomarker in various cancers. The roles of GALNT6 in GC were analyzed, and the results showed that GALNT6 expression markedly increased in GC tissues compared with those in adjacent gastric tissues. High intratumoral GALNT6 density was associated with the clinicopathological parameters of TNM stage and distant metastasis. GALNT6 was identified as an independent prognosticator for the poor prognosis of GC patients. Moreover, the high expression level of GALNT6 was significantly associated with the low expression levels of E-cadherin and β-catenin and the high expression levels of MMP9. These findings indicated that GALNT6 could provide new insights into the characterization of GC as well as contribute to the development of an efficient prognostic indicator and novel therapeutic modalities for GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prognostic significance of claudin 4 (CLDN4) in patients with gastric cancer (GC) is controversial. This meta-analysis aims to assess the correlation between CLDN4 expression and clinicopathological characteristics and assess the prognostic significance of CLDN4 in GC. Methods: We searched the PubMed and Embase databases. We performed the meta-analysis with odds ratio (OR), hazard ratio (HR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) as effect values. Results: Fourteen studies containing 2,106 patients with GC were analyzed. The overall analysis showed that CLDN4 expression was associated with increasing pT category, tumor size, and lymph node metastasis in patients with GC (pT3-T4 vs pT1-T2: OR =1.56, 95% CI =1.13-2.16; P<0.01; large tumor size vs small tumor size: OR =1.64, 95% CI =1.15-2.34; P<0.01; positive lymph node metastasis vs negative lymph node metastasis: OR =1.49, 95% CI =1.12-1.97; P<0.01). CLDN4 expression was associated with histological differentiation (differentiated type vs undifferentiated type: OR =2.90, 95% CI =1.32-6.37; P=0.01; Lauren intestinal type vs diffuse type: OR =3.51,95% CI =1.48-8.28; P<0.01). CLDN4 expression was also strongly associated with sex and age. This meta-analysis found no significant association between CLDN4 expression and prognosis for overall survival in patients with GC (HR =0.74, 95% CI =0.43-1.27; P=0.28). Conclusion: Present study indicates that aberrant CLDN4 expression plays an important role in the clinicopathological characteristics of GC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]