Table 1.
Baseline clinico-pathologic characteristics and serum level of CEA or HMGB1 according to disease groups
| Groups of diseases (n) | Normal (50) | High-risk Group (50)* | EGC Group (40) | AGC Group (45) | Metastatic GC group (42) |
| Clinical factors | |||||
| Age (mean ± S.D; year) | 56.0 ± 13 | 57.5 ± 12.3 | 61.5 ± 12.0 | 59.8 ± 13.7 | 54.7 ± 11.9 |
| Male/female (n) | 32:18 | 31:19 | 25:15 | 28:17 | 26:16 |
| H. pylori infection (-/+, n) | 21:29 | 30:20 | 18:22 | 27:18 | 20:22 |
| Pathological factors | |||||
| Size of main tumor (cm) | NS | NS | 4.1 ± 2.7 | 9.2 ± 5.9 | 11.8 ± 4.6 |
| Differentiation | NS | NS | |||
| Intestinal type | 25 | 21 | 14 | ||
| Diffuse type | 15 | 24 | 28 | ||
| Tumor location | NS | NS | |||
| Antrum/Body | 31 | 28 | 21 | ||
| Cardia | 9 | 10 | 12 | ||
| Diffuse | 0 | 7 | 7 | ||
| Depth of invasion | NS | NS | |||
| m, sm | 24, 16 | 2, 0 | 0, 0 | ||
| mp, ss | 0 | 9, 13 | 3, 10 | ||
| se, a1–3 | 0 | 19, 2 | 1, 0 | ||
| Lymph-node metastasis | NS | NS | |||
| N0 | 39 | 9 | 1 | ||
| N1 | 1 | 17 | 2 | ||
| N2 | 0 | 10 | 3 | ||
| N3 | 0 | 9 | 8 | ||
| Lymphovascular invasion (-/+) | NS | NS | 33: 7 | 10: 35 | 6: 10 |
| Distant metastatic organ | NS | NS | NS | NS | |
| Liver | 18 | ||||
| Peritoneum | 19 | ||||
| Others† | 16 | ||||
| Stage | NS | NS | |||
| I | 40 | ||||
| II | 19 | ||||
| III | 26 | ||||
| IV | 42 | ||||
| Serum CEA (ng/ml)‡ | 1.7 ± 0.8 | 2.6 ± 1.8 | 1.6 ± 0.9 | 3.8 ± 8.1 | 46.3 ± 551.5 |
| Serum HMGB1 (ng/ml)§ | 3.9 ± 3.4 | 6.3 ± 6.3 | 9.9 ± 11.5 | 16.5 ± 27.4 | 14.1 ± 13.2 |
EGC, early gastric cancer; ACG, advanced gastric cancer; GC, gastric cancer; H. pylori, Helicobacter pylori; mucosa; sm, sub-mucosa; mp, muscularis propria; ss, sub-serosa; se, serosa, a1, adventitia; a2, definite invasion into adventitia; a3, invasion into neighboring structures; N0, no lymph node metastases; N1, 1 to 6 regional lymph node metastases; n2, 7 to 15; N3, greater than 15; NS, not studied.
*This group includes intestinal metaplasia and adenoma.
† Others include ovary, pancreas, colon, bone, adrenal gland, lung, etc.
‡Serum CEA level was not significantly different among normal, high-risk, EGC, and AGC groups (ANOVA, p > 0.05). It was merely significantly higher in metastatic GC group (M group) compared with other groups (p <0.05).
§Serum HMGB1 level was significantly difference among normal, high-risk, EGC, AGC, and M groups (ANOVA, p <0.05). And serum HMGB1 level tended to increase according to the progression of the gastric carcinogenesis.
¶Pathological factors such as depth of invasion, node metastasis, frequency of lymphovascular or perineural invasion were not fully investigated in M group because most of patients in this stage could not be received an operation.