Expression and role of Twist and N-cadherin in pancreatic cancer / 中华胰腺病杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the expression of Twist and N-cadherin in pancreatic cancer,and to study its relationship with clinicopathological parameters and patients' prognosis.Methods The expression of the Twist and N-cadherin in 62 tissue samples from patients with pancreatic ductal adencocarcinoma and 10 normal pancreatic tissue samples was determined by using immunohistochemistry MaxVision two step method,and the relationship with clinicopathological parameters and patients' prognosis was analyzed.ResultsThe positive expression rate of Twist in pancreatic cancer was higher than that of normal pancreatic tissues (96.8％ vs.30％,P ＜0.01 ),and the positive expression rate of N-cadherin was higher than that of normal pancreatic tissues (75.8％ vs.0,P ＜0.01),but there was no correlation between them (r =0.100,P =0.441 ).The expressions of Twist and N-cadherin was significantly correlated with TNM stage,lymph node metastasis,infiltration of portal vein or nerves and tumor location ( P ＜0.05 ),but not with age,gender and degree of differentiation ( P ＞ 0.05 ).The post-operative survival of patients decreased with the increasing Twist expression,but the survival was not associated with the expression of N-cadherin.TNM stage,the expression of Twist was independent predictive factors of prognosis for pancreatic cancer patients.ConclusionsTwist and N-cadherin are highly expressed in pancreatic cancer,and the expression was associated malignant behavior of pancreatic cancer.The abnormal expression of Twist may be a potential marker for prognosis evaluation of pancreatic cancer patients.