MAEL Cancer-Testis Antigen as a Diagnostic Marker in Primary Stages of Gastric Cancer with Helicobacter pylori Infection

Purpose Gastric cancer (GC) is the third leading cause of cancer related deaths in the world. Cancer testis antigens (CTAs) are involved in tumor progression of various cancers. These markers have not any expression or minimally expression in normal tissues, highlighting them as efficient methods for molecular targeted therapy. In the present study, we assessed the role of MAEL as a CTA in biology of GC and risk of Helicobacter Pylori (H pylori) infection. Methods Levels of MAEL mRNA expression in 80 GC tumor tissues were compared to their corresponding normal margins using the real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results There was a significant correlation between MAEL expression and tumor stage (p = 0.050). There were also significant correlations between MAEL expression and tumor grade (p = 0.015) and depth of invasion (p = 0.030) among the H pylori negative cases. Conclusions MAEL is probably associated with aggressiveness of primary-stage tumors and can be introduced as an efficient marker for the early detection and also H pylori infected tumors in GC patients.