BACKGROUND: Transcription factor 7 (TCF7) plays an essential role in Wnt signaling by interacting with β-catenin. Emerging evidence demonstrates that overexpression of TCF7 promotes progression or correlates with poor progression in several types of cancers, but the functions of TCF7 in gastric cancer (GC) have not been revealed.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 168 patients with GC who underwent radical surgeries were collected and regarded as the test cohort. The expression of TCF7 in the 168 patients was detected with immunohistochemistry. Moreover, the mRNA levels of TCF7 in 11 pairs of GC and adjacent tissues were detected with quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The correlations between TCF7 and the clinicopathological factors were evaluated with the chi-square test, and the prognostic value of TCF7 in GC was investigated with univariate analysis and multivariate analysis.

RESULTS: The mRNA levels of TCF7 in GC tissues were significantly higher than in corresponding tumor adjacent tissues. The patients of low TCF7 expression and high TCF7 expression accounted for 76.79% (129/168) and 23.21% (39/168), respectively. In our experiments, TCF7 was significantly associated with positive lymphatic invasion (P=0.022) and metastasis (P<0.001). The high expression of TCF7 was correlated with low survival rates (P=0.012) and was confirmed as an independent prognostic factor (HR=1.92, 95%CI =1.06–3.47, P=0.031) of GC in multivariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: TCF7 expression is correlated with metastasis and is an independent prognostic factor of GC. TCF7 detection of GC could help stratify the patients with high risk and guide precise treatment.

Keywords: Transcription Factor 7-Like 1 Protein, Biomarkers, Tumor, Immunohistochemistry, RNA, Messenger, Risk Factors, Survival Rate, T Cell Transcription Factor 1, beta Catenin