Gastric cancer: adding glycosylation to the equation

• Glycosylation changes are a hallmark of cancer cells.
• Glycosylation plays a key role in fundamental pathophysiological steps of GC.
• Deciphering GC cell “glycans code” contributes to its molecular understanding.
• Glycan biomarkers hold an opportunity for improving early cancer diagnosis and therapy.

Gastric cancer has a high incidence and mortality, so there is a pressing need to understand the underlying molecular mechanisms in order to discover novel biomarkers. Glycosylation alterations are frequent during gastric carcinogenesis and cancer progression. This review describes the role of glycans from the initial steps of the carcinogenesis process, in which Helicobacter pylori adheres to host mucosa glycans and modulates the glycophenotype, as well as how glycans interfere with epithelial cell adhesion by modulating epithelial cadherin functionality in gastric cancer progression. Other mechanisms regulating gastric cancer malignant behavior are discussed, such as increased sialylation interfering with key signaling pathways and integrin glycosylation leading to an invasive phenotype. Applications of these glycosylation alterations in the clinical management of gastric cancer patients are discussed.