Abstract
Fifty asymptomatic human subjects and 50 gastric cancer patients were analyzed by the BrdU-staining indirect enzyme method. In the asympotmatic subjects, the Labeling Index (LI) of histological types was 11.5±5.3% in atrophic gastritis, 7.2±3.1% in superficial gastritis, and 5.3±1.0% in normal gastric mucosa. In the gastric cancer group, the average LI was 17.8±5.8% for the gastric cancer lesions and 7.2±3.4% for the noncancerous mucosal lesions. LI correlations with cancer advancement stage, lymph node metastasis, lymphatic permeation and depth of invasion were revealed. In staining patterns of BrdU-positive cells, a significant difference was not seen in the asymptomatic group. On the other hand, in the gastric cancer group, Granular type (Type G) was 35.4%, Diffused type (Type D) was 41.2%, and marginal type (Type M) was 23.9%. A study of these types by advancement stage shows that in stage I all three types were distributed quite evenly. In contrast, the occurrence rate had increased in stage II, Type G, and in stage HI and IV, Type D. However, correlations with other factors were not found. These results suggest that the discrimination of the S phase from BrdU-staining patterns before surgery is an effective measure for greater accuracy in diagnosis in estimating the stage of advancement of gastric cancer and in determining operative procedures.
