Although our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of gastric cancer (GC) development and progression is steadily deepening, the clinical outcome of GC patients remains inadequate. The identification of molecules associated with GC will help improve prognosis. We aimed to identify the molecules involved in GC progression and metastasis.

Transcriptome analysis was performed on surgically resected gastric tissue from patients with hepatic metastasis. Fourteen cell lines and 230 pairs of primary GC tissues and their corresponding normal adjacent tissues were included in the mRNA expression analysis.

Adhesion molecule with Ig like domain 2 (AMIGO2) was identified as a gene of interest. The levels of AMIGO2 mRNA positively correlated with those encoding FOXC2, NODAL, GEMIN2 and negatively correlated with TFPI2. Patients with high AMIGO2 expression experienced significantly shorter disease-free survival and overall survival. High levels of AMIGO2 were associated with poor prognosis.

Patients with GC with high AMIGO2 mRNA levels experienced significantly shorter survival, suggesting that AMIGO2 may serve as a prognostic biomarker for GC.