RESUMEN
Purpose To study the expression of livin and caspase-3 protein in pancreatic carcinoma and their correlation with clinicopathologic features and survivial time.Methods High-throughput tissue microarray technique and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the expression of livin and caspase-3 protein in 88 pancreatic carcinoma specimens without a history of chemo-radiation therapy and 11 non tumorous pancreatic tissues,and the relationship of these subjects was analyzed with Spearman rank correlation. Among these 88 cases, 54 cases were followed-up for 2 months to 6 years, whom were used for the prognosis analysis.Results In the 88 cases, the positive rate of livin was 76.1% (67/88); however, the positive expression of caspase-3 was 90.9%(10/11) in non-tumorous pancreatic tissue, which was much higher than that in the cancer (40.9%,36/88), with statistically significant differences(P＜0.01). There were significant relationships of livin protein expression with sex, TNM stage and lymph node metastasis (P＜0.05); the expression of caspase-3 protein expression was significantly related to sex, histological grade, TNM stage and lymph node metastasis (P＜0.01). Spearman rank correlation showed a significant correlation between livin and caspase-3 protein (P＜0.01). In 54 cases with followed-up data, univariant analysis revealed that both of livin protein expression and lymph node metastasis were related to the survival rate (P＜0.05), but caspase-3 protein expression, sex, age, tumor location, size, histological grade and TNM stage were unrelated to prognosis (P＞0.05). Furthermore,COX stepwise proportional hazards analysis showed that only livin status retained independent significance in prospecting prognosis of pancreatic carcinoma.Conclusions The expression of livin is associated with clinicopathologic features and prognosis in pancreatic carcinoma. High expression of livin protein indicates poor prognosis, which could become an independent index for the evaluation of prognosis.caspase-3 protein may be involved in the regulation of apoptosis and the progression of pancreatic carcinoma.