Abstract:Objective: To investigate the influence of β-tubulin expression level in cancer tissues of gastric cancer patients on the efficacy of paclitaxel chemotherapy after radical gastrectomy. Methods: Cancer tissues from 332 patients with stomach cancer undergoing post-gastrectomy paclitaxel chemotherapy were collected. The β-tubulin mRNA expression in the cancer tissues was measured by RT-PCR, and then the relations of β-tubulin mRNA expression with the clinical characteristics of the patients were analyzed. In addition, the survival difference between two groups of patients with high and low β-tubulin expression was compared by Kaplan-Meier method. Results: β-tubulin mRNA expression in gastric cancer was unrelated to the age or gender of the patients, or the location and size of the tumors (all P>0.05), but was associated with the degree of differentiation, TNM stage, and lymphatic and distant metastasis (all P<0.05). The survival time of patients from high β-tubulin expression group was significantly shorter than that from low β-tubulin expression group (P<0.05). Conclusion: β-tubulin expression level in gastric cancer is closely related to the long-term survival of gastric cancer patients undergoing post-gastrectomy paclitaxel chemotherapy, and can be used as predictive index of prognosis.