Correlations between the expression of Notch3 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma with clinical features and overall survival / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the expression of Notch3 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and to find out its relationship with clinical features and overall survival in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.Methods PDAC and adjacent non-cancerous tissues from 80 patients who under went surgery for primary PDAC in the Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Zhengzhou University were collected between 2008 and 2015.The specimens were divided into two subgroups by immunohistochemical staining of Notch3:the low expression group (0-4 points) and the high expression group (5-12 points).Correlations between expression of Notch3 with clinical features and prognosis of patients with PDAC were analyzed.Results A high expression of Notch3 gene was significantly associated with tumor grade,metastasis,venous invasion and TNM staging.Univariate Cox regression analysis showed that metastasis,venous invasion,TNM stage and protein expression of Notch3 were strongly correlated with overall survival of patients.Multivariate analysis showed that metastasis,TNM stage and Notch3 were independent risk factors of overall survival in patients with PDAC.Kaplan-Meier survival curves indicated that a high expression of Notch3 was an important risk factor of poor survival.Conclusions A high expression of Notch3 was significantly associated with progression and poor prognosis of PDCA.Notch3 may serve as a new indicator of PDAC progression and patient survival outcomes.