Abstract: Objective To investigate the correlation between serum decoy receptor 3(DcR3) and TNM staging in gastric carcinoma (GC).Methods Serum DcR3 levels were measured by using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) in 34 patients with GC,18 patients with nonmalignant conditions and 28 healthy individuals.Results The levels of serum DcR3 in GC were significantly higher than that in the control group(P<0.01) and the nonmalignant conditions(P<0.01),respectively. Serum DcR3 levels in GC in TNM stageⅢandⅣwere obviously higher than that in stageⅠandⅡ(P<0.01).In addition, patients with both lymph node metastasis and systemic metastasis showed significantly higher serum DcR3 levels compared to that without lymph node metastasis and systemic metastasis(P<0.01,P<0.05).But the levels of serum DcR3 had no correlation with differentiation grades and infiltrate depth(P>0.05,P>0.05).Conclusions Serum DcR3 levels were correlated significantly with TNM stage.This can help to evaluate the pre-operative clinical classification and decide the optimal extent of lymph node and adjacent organs dissection for gastric carcinoma.

Key words: DcR3, Gastric neoplasms, Neoplasm staging, Serum