60. It is possible to tumour-inflitrating granulocytes promote tumour progression

Several lines of evidence indicate that tumour-infliltrating granulocytes (TIGs) promote tumour growth and progression. However, the prognostic of TIGs, the relationship between TIGS and Fas ligand (FasL) expressed on tumour cells remians unclear and warrants investigation. Using immunnostainning, we retrospectively investigated TIGs and FasL in 130 tissue specimens from gastric carcinoma. We analyzed the correlation among these markers, their association with clinicopathologic feature and prognosis. The number of TIGs was significantly associated with FasL-expression (P=0.002). Further, TIGs were significantly associated with depth of tumour invasion, lymph node metastasis and tumour stages. Calculating the prognostic relevance, in multivariate analysis, TIGs [relative risk (RR) =1.014; 95% CI=1.002-1.027; P=0.015] and tumour stage were statistically significant factors for survival. Our results suggest that TIGs are conveniently measuerd by the immunostaining method, and possibly serve as an independent factor of prognosis in patients with gastric carcinoma. This is based on the fact that TIGs were significantly associated with tumour stage and shorter survival time.