Aim: Gastric cancer is the third most frequent cause of cancer mortality worldwide. In Iran, it is one of theleading causes at the national level. Localized at chromosome 8q22, the human MTDH gene has been reportedto be over-expressed in a spectrum of malignancies. However, since there is a lack of data concerning withexpression in gastric cancer at the transcriptional level, in this study we evaluated MTDH expression in Iraniancases. Methods: Totally, thirty paired gastric samples were examined by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Results:Although the mRNA expression was significantly elevated in 46.6% of the examined tumor tissues; its expressionwas low in others (36.6%). Moreover, there was only a marginal statistical difference between the MTDH geneexpression of all tumor specimens compared to their paired non-tumor ones and no statistically significantassociation with the grades and types of the tumors. Conclusion: Taken together, our results demonstrated thatexpression of MTDH at the transcriptional level may be increased in gastric cancer tissue samples but withconsiderable heterogeneity. Due to this, it may have the potential to be used as a target for diagnostic/therapeuticpurposes only in a subset of patients.
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