Survivin as a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of the progression of precancerous lesions to gastric cancer

Background Gastric cancer is a common cancer developed in a carcinogenesis process from precancerous lesions including chronic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, and dysplasia. Survivin, an inhibitor-of-apoptosis protein, is associated with the initiation and progression of gastric cancer. The present study aimed to evaluate the immunohistochemical expression patterns of survivin and its relationship with early diagnosis of gastric cancer in Iranian patients. Methods In this retrospective case-control study, immunoexpression of survivin was investigated on sections obtained from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks of 38 chronic gastritis, 32 intestinal metaplasia, 20 dysplasia, 28 gastric adenocarcinoma, and 22 controls. Results Survivin immunoexpression in chronic gastritis was higher than controls, but this difference was not statistically significant ( P > 0.05). However, survivin immunoexpression had a steady significant increase from control and chronic gastritis to intestinal metaplasia to dysplasia to gastric adenocarcinoma ( P < 0.05). Sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve of survivin immunohistochemical test for the diagnosis of gastric cancer were 87.5%, 74.4%, and 0.85, respectively. Males had a significantly higher survivin expression than females ( P < 0.001). Also, survivin expression was significantly higher in older patients than in younger ones ( P < 0.001). Conclusion It seems that the steady increase in survivin expression from different precancerous lesions to gastric adenocarcinoma suggests that survivin can be used as a potential biomarker for the prevention and early diagnosis of gastric cancer.