Expression of Fascin in Gallbladder Carcinoma

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Gallbladder carcinoma is the most common malignancy of the biliary tract in Koreans. However the exact histopathological characteristics and its carcinogenesis are not well understood. Fascin is an actin bundling protein, and it induces membrane protrusions and increased cell motility in various transformed cells. The expression of fascin is known to be greatly increased in various human neoplasms, but its expression in gallbladder carcinoma is unknown. METHODS: A total 110 cases of gallbladder carcinoma, six cases of carcinoma in situ and 10 cases of chronic cholecystitis were immunohistochemically studied to evaluate the expression of fascin in the light of its relationship with various prognostic factors. RESULTS: Seventy eight gallbladder carcinomas (70.9%) showed positive staining for fascin, but none of the chronic cholecystitis and carcinoma in situ was positive. Fascin was strongly stained in the cytoplasm of the cancer cells. The adjacent normal mucosa was negative for fascin staining. There was a significant correlation between lymph node metastasis (P=0.039) and the presence of residual tumor (P=0.016) but there was no significant correlation between age, gender, tumor invasion, histologic difference, neural invasion, lymphatic invasion, stage and recurrence. The 5-year overall survival rate of the fascin positive and negative groups were 48.5% and 53.8%, respectively (P=0.236). On the multivariate analysis, a fascin expression was not significant. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that a fascin expression is strongly associated with neoplastic progression in gallbladder carcinomas and fascin positive gallbladder carcinomas show more aggressive behavior.