Clinical significance and role of LKB1 in gastric cancer.

Liver kinase B1 (LKB1) functions as a tumor suppressor gene, and loss in the expression of LKB1 contributes to human carcinogenesis and tumor progression. The present study investigated the association between LKB1 and gastric cancer. SGC-7901 gastric cancer cell lines and 63 patients with gastric cancer were examined in the present study, and lentivirus transfection, reverse transription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and flow cytometric analyses were performed. By examining the expression of LKB1 using immunohistochemical analyses, the present study found that the expression of LKB1 was reduced in the gastric cancer tissues, and restoration of the expression of LKB1 reduced tumor cell viability, migration rate and the expression of CD44, induced cell cycle arrest at the G2 phase of the cell cycle, and increased the sensitivity of the gastric cancer cells to anticancer drugs. LKB1 protein is a tumor-suppressor in gastric cancer and may be potentially be developed as a novel gene therapy target in the treatment of gastric cancer.