Elevated HABP1 protein expression correlates with progression and poor survival in patients with gastric cancer

Hongyu Gao,1 Qiang Yao,1 Xiuwen Lan,1 Sen Li,1 Junlong Wu,2 Guangchun Zeng,2 Yingwei Xue1 1Department of Gastroenterologic Surgery, 2Department of Pathology, The Affiliated Tumor Hospital, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, People’s Republic of China Background: Hyaluronic acid-binding protein 1 (HABP1/gC1qR/p32) has been recently implicated in oncogenesis and cancer progression in various malignancies; however, its clinical role in gastric cancer (GC) is still unclear. Patients and methods: First, HABP1 expression was determined by Western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. Then, we evaluated the expression of HABP1 and its clinical significance in tumor tissues from 181 patients with GC. Results: Expression of HABP1 protein in GC tissues was noticeably higher than that in adjacent nonneoplastic tissues (P=0.018). Increased HABP1 expression was significantly associated with tumor, node, and metastasis (TNM) stage (P=0.006), depth of invasion (P=0.001), lymph node metastasis (P=0.001), liver metastasis (P=0.024), and peritoneum metastasis (P=0.009). Patients with high expression of HABP1 had poor overall survival rate (P