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Purpose: To determine the correlation between the parameters of MR diffusion kurtosis imaging (MR-DKI) and mismatch repair gene expression (MMR) for rectal carcinomas. Materials and methods: Data from 80 patients with rectal carcinoma were analyzed in this prospective study. High-resolution T2WI and DKI (b = 0, 800 and 1600 s/mm2, respectively) were performed. Mean kurtosis (MK) and mean diffusivity (MD) from DKI were measured. MMR-positive expression and HER-2 expression were classified into two groups. For comparison between different grades, the Mann-Whitney U test, receiver operating characteristic curve, and Spearman’s correlation analysis were used for statistical analyses. Results: The MK values in identifying positive MMR expressions (MLH1, MSH2, and MSH6) were more reliable than the MD values (rs value: 0.772 vs. 0.448, 0.733 vs. 0.499, and 0.828 vs. 0.633 respectively, P<0.01). Receiver operating curve analysis showed that the performances of the MK values were better than those of the MD values (z = 2.835, 2.000, and 2.827, respectively, P<0.05), while the performances of the MK and MD-MK values were not statistically significant (z = 0.808, 1.557, and 0.596, respectively, P>0.05). Similarly, MK values were better than MD values in identifying HER2 expression (z = 2.795, P<0.05). Conclusions: MK derived from DKI demonstrated a greater correlation than MD with MMR expression. It also showed better performance in differentiating between high- and low-grade positive MMR expression and HER2 expression. Thus, DKI may be valuable for the prognoses and evaluation of non-invasive therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Zinc finger, DHHC-type containing 2 (ZDHHC2), originally named as reduced expression associated with metastasis protein (REAM), has been proposed as a putative tumor/metastasis suppressor gene and is often aberrantly decreased in human cancers. However ZDHHC2 expression pattern and its clinical significance have not yet been investigated in gastric adenocarcinoma. Methodology/Principal Findings: Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunostaining were performed to detect ZDHHC2 expression in gastric adenocarcinoma, and then the correlation between ZDHHC2 expression and clinicpathologic parameters, and patient survival was analyzed. Compared to the adjacent normal tissues, ZDHHC2 expression was significantly reduced in gastric tumor tissues as shown by qRT-PCR and immunostaining. Low expression of ZDHHC2 was observed in 44.7% (211/472) of gastric adenocarcinoma patients, and was associated significantly with lymph node metastasis (p<0.001) and histological grade (p<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that ZDHHC2 expression had a significant, independent predictive value for survival of gastric cancer patients (HR = 0.627, p = 0.001). Conclusions/Significance: Our data suggest that reduced ZDHHC2 expression is associated with lymph node metastasis and independently predicts an unfavorable prognosis in gastric adenocarcinoma patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]