Expression of CD40 in Gastric Cancer and Its Clinical Significance

[Purpose] To explore the relationship between CD40 expression and clinicopathologic profiles in gastric cancer.[Methods] The expression of CD40 in gastric cancer tissues was detected immunohistochemically.[Results] The positive expression rate of CD40 in gastric cancer tissue was 34.4%,which was significantly higher than that in normal tissue(χ2=5.9600,P=0.0146).The positive expression rate of CD40 in gastric cancer with lymph node metastasis was higher than that without lymph node metastasis(χ2=2.7234,P=0.0989).The positive expression of CD40 was significantly correlated with distant metastasis and clinical stage of gastric cancer(χ2=9.6333,P=0.0019;χ2=4.2262,P=0.0398),but not correlated with cancer differentiation,depth of invasion and cancer size.Those cases with positive expression of CD40 revealed poor prognosis.[Conclusion] CD40 might play an important role in the carcinogenesis of gastric cancer and might be a valuable marker in predicting the metastasis and prognosis for gastric cancer.