Cyclin D1 and E have been found to be deregulated and overexpressed in various types of
cancers. In order to study the cell cycle regulatory mechanisms in
gastric cancer, we have analyzed the
protein expression of
cyclin D1 and
cyclin E in 76
tumor specimens from patients with primary
gastric cancer, using immunohistochemistry. Overexpression of
cyclin D1 was observed in 38 cases (50.0%). Overexpression of
cyclin E was observed in 40 cases (52.6%). There was no significant difference between the expression of
cyclin D1 and any clinicopathological factor.
Cyclin E overexpression was correlated with a high incidence of
lymph node metastasis, a low incidence of T1, and with Stage I. There was no significant difference in survival curves between
cyclin D1 (+) and
cyclin D1 (-). The survival curves of
cyclin E (-) were significantly higher than those of
cyclin E (+). These results suggested that in gastric
carcinoma,
cyclin E overexpression was useful as a prognostic
indicator, but
cyclin D1 was not.