10.6084/m9.figshare.5792586.v1 X. Zhang X. Zhang Y. Song Y. Song N. Song N. Song L. Zhang L. Zhang Y. Wang Y. Wang D. Li D. Li Z. Wang Z. Wang X. Qu X. Qu Y. Liu Y. Liu Rankl expression predicts poor prognosis in gastric cancer patients: results from a retrospective and single-center analysis SciELO journals 2018 RANKL RANK Gastric cancer IHC overall survival 2018-01-17 02:55:28 Dataset https://scielo.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Rankl_expression_predicts_poor_prognosis_in_gastric_cancer_patients_results_from_a_retrospective_and_single-center_analysis/5792586 <div><p>The receptor activator of nuclear factor κB ligand (RANKL)/RANK pathway plays an important role in the prognosis of several solid tumor types, but its role in gastric cancer prognosis has been poorly characterized. A total of 116 gastric cancer patients who underwent surgical resection were enrolled in this study. Expressions of RANKL and RANK in gastric cancer tissues were detected using immunohistochemical staining. Thirty-eight patients (33%) showed a high level of RANKL expression and 61 patients (53%) showed a high level of RANK expression. There was a positive correlation between expressions of RANKL and RANK (P=0.014, r=0.221). A high level of RANKL expression indicated shorter overall survival (OS) (P=0.008), and was associated with a higher pathological tumor/lymph node/metastasis (pTNM) stage (P=0.035), while no significant correlation was detected between RANK expression and clinicopathological parameters. RANKL also predicted poor prognosis in patients with high RANK expression (P=0.008) and Bormann's type III/IV (P=0.002). Furthermore, RANKL expression correlated with pTNM stage according to high RANK expression (P=0.009), while no significance was found in patients with low RANK expression (P=1.000). Together, our results revealed that high expression of RANKL could predict worse outcomes in gastric cancer especially combined with RANK detection, and thereby this pathway could be a useful prognostic indicator of gastric cancer.</p></div>