RETRACTED ARTICLE: EpCAM: A Potential Antimetastatic Target for Gastric Cancer

Purpose Epithelial cellular adhesion molecule (EpCAM) is an attractive immunotherapeutic target to overcome metastasis of a variety of epithelium-oriented cancers. Edrecolomab, one kind of EpCAM monoclonal antibody (Panorex ® ), has been approved for clinical application as postoperative adjuvant therapy in breast and colorectal cancer. However, the role of EpCAM in gastric cancer metastasis remains unclear. Results EpCAM was found to be more highly overexpressed in metastatic gastric cancer than in nonmetastatic samples by immunohistochemistry staining. The expression level of EpCAM in gastric cancer cell lines was determined by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting, respectively. Downregulation of EpCAM by small interfering RNA (siRNA) significantly suppressed in vitro adhesive, invasive, and migratory and in vivo metastatic abilities of gastric cancer cells. Conclusion We provide first evidence that EpCAM contributes to the migration of gastric cancer, suggesting that EpCAM-targeted therapy might be a promising strategy in metastatic gastric cancer.