Furthermore, a decreased expression of FOXO3a was significantly associated with larger tumor size, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, lymph node metastasis and distant metastasis, suggesting that abnormal FOXO3a expression might be involved in gastric cancer tumor progression and metastasis and that FOXO3a could also play a tumor suppressor role in gastric cancer. This evidence concerns the gene FOXO3 and adenocarcinoma.