Expression and Clinical Significance of CK19 and CK20 Expressions in Transverse Mesocolon Biopsies from Patients with Gastric Carcinoma

We sought to evaluate in this study the significance of cytokeratin (CK)-19 and CK-20 in determining the peritoneal micrometastasis of gastric carcinoma and also determine the factors related with the occurrence of peritoneal micrometastasis. For this purpose, 152 patients with gastric cancer were enrolled in the study and transverse mesocolon biopsies were undertaken intraoperatively. The CK19 and CK20 immunohistochemical staining were performed on the tissue samples, and the results were compared with those of H&E staining and peritoneal lavage cytology (PLC). Our data show that the positivity rates of CK19 and CK20 in transverse mesocolon were 48.6 and 61.2%, respectively, which were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than that (10.0%) of PLC. Besides, the positivity rate increased with the depth of tumor invasion. Based on these data, we concluded that CK19 and CK20 expressions could be adopted to determine the peritoneal micrometastasis for accurate clinical staging of the patients. These data provide reliable guideline for postoperative treatment and prognosis of gastric carcinoma.