The expression of insulin-like growth factor I and insulin-like growth factor II in gastrointestinal stromal tumors and their clinicopathologic significance

Objective To investigate the expression of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF I) and insulin-like growth factor II (IGF II) and their clinicopathologic significance in the proliferation of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), and the correlation between IGF1 and IGFR2. Methods Immunohistochemical method SABC was used to detect the expression of IGF1 and IGF2 in 55 GISTs cases. The correaltion of the positive rate with clinicopathologic factors including sex, histological subtype, tumor size, histological grade and localization was analysed. Results Of 55 GISTs cases, 34 cases were found positive for IGF1 (61.8%) and 27 cases positive for IGF2 (49.1%). Significant difference in the positive rate of IGF1 or IGF2 was observed among different tumor size or histological grade groups(P0.05). The expression was not correlated with the factors of sex, histological subtype, localization, tumor node number, original/recurrence in different groups(P0.05). Conclusion IGF1 and IGF2 play certain roles in pathogenesis and proliferation of GISTs, which may be used as an objective index for distinguishing malignant GISTs from benign ones.