Abstract: Abstract Objective: To investigate the expression of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) in gastric carcinoma and evaluate the correlation of NGAL expression with clinicopathologic progression , metastasis and prognosis. Methods：The expression of NGAL was observed in 102 gastric carcinoma tissues and 32 normal gastic tissues by immunohistochemistry. The correlation of NGAL expression with clinicopathological parameters and metastasis was analyzed. Results： The positive rate of NGAL expression in gastric carcinoma was 56.9%, which was significantly higher than in normal gastric tissue 21.9% (χ2=11.938, P <0.01). The expression of NGAL was significantly different in Patients with different histological types (χ2=10.180, P <0.05) .The expression of NGAL was observed to correlate positively with serosal invasion, TNM stage, lymph node status and T stage(rs =0.307, 0.211, 0.220, 0.201, P <0.01 or P <0.05). NGAL expression of positive and nagative groups of five-years cumulative survival rates were 24.3% and 43.7%. Kaplan-Meier curves showed a significant difference (P =0.018).Conclusion: NGAL expression of positive in gastric carcinoma, was correlated significantly with tumor progression and lymphatic metastasis, NGAL might be a poor prognostic factor for human gastric carcinoma, and also might be a novel molecular marker to predicate the prognosis of gastric carcinoma.

Key words: neutrophils, apolipoproteins, stomach neoplasms, carcinoma, lymphatic metastasis, prognosis immunohistochemistry, 免疫组织化学