Expression and clinical significance of zinc finger protein 217 in human gastric cancer

Objective To investigate the expression and clinical significance of zinc finger protein 217(ZNF217)in human gastric cancer. Methods Total 58 cases of gastric cancer tissues and the corresponding tumor-adjacent normal tissues,and 30 cases of gastric mucosa which were suspected as gastric cancer but refused by biopsy pathology between March 2013 and July 2014 were collected.Real-time quantitative PCR(qRT-PCR)was applied to detect ZNF217 mRNA expression in tissues(n=58),the protein expression of ZNF217 was measured by immunohistochemistry(IHC).The relationship between the expression of ZNF217 and clinical features was analyzed by Pearson chi-square test. Results The expression level of ZNF217 mRNA was significantly higher in gastric cancer(6.911±0.139) tissues than in adjacent normal tissues(1.372±0.205),P＜0.001.The protein expression of ZNF217 was also higher in gastric cancer tissues(χ²=39.910,P＜0.001),the high expression of ZNF217 protein was positively correlated with large tumor size(χ²=5.810,P=0.016),lymphatic metastasis(χ²=5.778,P=0.016) and advanced TNM stage(χ²=4.806,P=0.028).ROC curves demonstrated that ZNF217 expression status had a high value for gastric cancer diagnosis. Conclusion The expression of ZNF217 is significantly higher in gastric cancer tissues than in tumor-adjacent normal tissues,and the up-regulation of ZNF217 is associated with clinicopathological features of tumor malignance.ZNF217 may become a new marker and effective therapeutic target in early diagnosis of gastric cancer.