Objective: To investigate the efficacy of paclitaxel-loaded carbon nanoparticles (PA-CNP)，  the targeted chemotherapeutic drug，  on apoptosis of tumor cells in lymph nodes of gastric cancer and its mechanism.
Methods: Thirty patients with gastric cancer were selected to participate in this study. The patients were assigned into observation group and control group with 15 cases in each group. The patients of the observation group were intraoperatively given lymphatic targeting chemotherapy of paclitaxel-loaded carbon before surgical resection， while the patients of the control group underwent surgery for gastric cancer directly. The regional lymph nodes of gastric cancer underwent pathological examination after surgery. The apoptosis in the metastatic nodes confirmed by pathology were detected with TUNEL assay， and the positive expression of Bcl-2 and p16 were determined by immunohistochemical staining.
Results: The apoptotic index of lymphocytes of the observation group ［(28.6±5.2)%］ was significantly higher than that of the control group ［(7.0±1.9)%］ (P＜0.05). The positive expression rate of Bcl-2 and p16 of lymphocytes between the first and the second station lymph nodes had no difference in either the observation group or control group (both P>0.05). The positive expression rate of Bcl-2 of lymphocytes in the observation group (16.7%) was significantly lower than that in the control group (56.7%) (P＜0.05)， while the positive expression rate of p16 of lymphocytes in the observation group (63.3%) was significantly higher than that in the control group (23.3%) (P＜0.05).
Conclusions: The paclitaxel-loaded carbon nanoparticles suspension can target the metastatic nodes of gastric cancer to decrease Bcl-2 and increase p16 expression， and thereby promote apoptosis.