Gastric cancer is a leading cause of
cancer-related mortality, and the presence of
lymph node metastasis an important prognostic factor. Downregulation of RKIP has been associated with
tumor progression and
metastasis in several types of
neoplasms, being currently categorized as a metastasis suppressor gene. Our aim was to determine the expression levels of RKIP in gastric tissues and to evaluate its impact in the clinical outcome of gastric
carcinoma patients. RKIP expression levels were studied by immunohistochemistry in a series of gastric tissues. Overall, we analysed 222 non-neoplastic gastric tissues, 152 primary
tumors and 42
lymph node metastasis samples. We observed that RKIP was highly expressed in ~83% of non-neoplastic tissues (including normal tissue and
metaplasia), was lost in ~56% of primary
tumors and in ~90% of
lymph node metastasis samples. Loss of RKIP expression was significantly associated with several markers of poor clinical outcome, including the presence of
lymph node metastasis. Furthermore, the absence of RKIP
protein constitutes an independent prognostic marker for these patients. In conclusion, RKIP expression is significantly lost during gastric
carcinoma progression being almost absent in
lymph node metastasis samples. Of note, we showed that the absence of RKIP expression is associated with poor outcome features of
gastric cancer patients, this being also an independent prognostic marker.