During the past decades, the subsites of gastric
carcinoma underwent significant changes. The incidence of the
adenocarcinoma at distal stomach has been decreased, whereas cardiac
adenocarcinoma remained increasing in many countries. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences between gastric cardiac and distal
adenocarcinomas. We detected expressions of cytokeratins (cytokeratins 7, 14, 19, and 20) and
mucins (
mucins 1, 2, and 5AC) by immunohistochemistry and signaling molecules (
p38, mitogen-activated protein kinase-interacting
kinase 1 (MNK1),
extracellular signal-regulated kinase,
Jun N-terminal kinase, and
phosphoinositide 3 kinase) by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in both groups. The incidence of
mucin 2 expression was lower in total (50.0%) and advanced-stage cases (52.0%) with cardiac
adenocarcinomas than those in distal cases with total (70.2%) and advanced stage (71.4%), respectively. However, the staining for
cytokeratin 14 was also significantly higher in total or advanced-stage
tumors from the cardia. Our data showed no significant difference of
cytokeratin 7/
cytokeratin 20 pattern between 2 groups, but
cytokeratin 20 expression was significantly higher in advanced-stage
carcinomas of the cardia (58.7%) than in distal ones with advanced stage (38.3%). A multivariate analysis demonstrated different relationships between immunophenotypic markers and pathologic parameters in
adenocarcinomas of the cardia and distal stomach. Moreover, significantly lower expressions of MNK1 and p38 in
cardiac tumors were also detected. In summary, we found significant differences in patterns of immunophenotypic markers and expressions of signaling molecules between the 2 groups. It is indicated that
adenocarcinoma of the cardia was different in histotype and histologic origin from distal
adenocarcinoma. The cardiac
adenocarcinoma might be a special subtype or an independent entity of gastric
carcinoma in China.