Elevated plasma visfatin levels correlate with poor prognosis of gastric cancer patients

• Plasma visfatin level is enhanced in gastric cancer.
• Visfatin is correlated with stage progression of gastric cancer.
• Visfatin is associated with death of gastric cancer.
• Visfatin is associated with overall survival of gastric cancer.

Visfatin is a proinflammmatory cytokine with accumulating evidence for its rise in circulation of cancer patients. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between preoperative plasma visfatin level and prognosis of gastric cancers. Preoperative plasma visfatin levels of 262 patients with gastric cancers and plasma visfatin levels of 262 healthy individuals were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Preoperative plasma visfatin level was substantially higher in patients than in healthy subjects. Plasma visfatin levels were associated with invasion depth, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, peritoneal dissemination, tumor size and tumor node metastasis stage. Multivariate analysis revealed that high plasma visfatin level was an independent factor for death. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that plasma visfatin level predicted death with high area under curve. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified plasma visfatin level as an independent predictor of overall survival. Thus, our results suggest that high preoperative plasma visfatin level is associated with prognostic factors for gastric cancer as well as may play a role as prognostic biomarker in gastric cancer survival.