Evaluation of JWA and XRCC1 expressions in gastric cancer

Recently surgery in combination with chemotherapy, and radiation therapy largely improved the clinical outcomes in comprehensive treatment of gastric cancer. However the overall survival rate of gastric cancer patients is still poor in terms of the stages of the disease. In order to achieve a more satisfactory prognosis, proper individual treatment plans should be developed due to the new guidance tools. In this respect, previously proposed actual biomarkers cannot provide expected benefit. Supporting evidences suggested that potential prognostic properties of JWA and DNA repair enzyme X-ray repair complementing defective repair in Chinese hamster cells 1 (XRCC1) seem promising. Since endogenous and exogenous factors may induce DNA damage and subsequent gastric cancer development, assessment of JWA and XRCC1 expression status may be favorable. For the validation of the guidance of JWA and XRCC1 expression in all cases randomly, further investigations are necessary in a large series of gastric cancer patients. Because of the ethical considerations, actual standard methods should be used in addition to the JWA and XRCC1 evaluation in gastric cancer cases. Consequently screening for gastric cancer is still costeffective in countries with high risk as well as moderate risk populations.