The expression and clinical significance of TTLL12 in hilar cholangiocarcinoma / 中华肝胆外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To analyze the expression of tubulin-tyrosine ligase-like 12 (TTLL12) in hilar cholangiocarcinoma and its adjacent tissues, and to explore the relationship between TTLL12 and clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma.Methods:The carcinoma tissues and paracancerous tissues of 45 patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma who had been operated in Qingdao Municipal Hospital from January 2016 to December 2020 were collected to prepare paraffin sections, including 27 males and 18 females, aged (58.8±8.5) years. The expression of TTLL12 and Ki-67 was detected by immunohistochemical staining. According to TTLL12 expression in cancer tissues, 45 patients were divided into negative group ( n=15) and positive group ( n=30). The relationship between TTLL12 positive expression and clinicopathological features such as lymph node metastasis and tumor differentiation was analyzed. The correlation between TTLL12 and Ki-67 expression in cancer tissues was analyze by Spearman correlation analysis. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis, and log-rank test was used to compare the survival rate. Results:Immunohistochemical staining showed that the expression of TTLL12 and Ki-67 in 45 patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma was significantly higher than that in paracancerous tissues. The expression of TTLL12 in hilar cholangiocarcinoma was positively correlated with that of Ki-67 (correlation coefficient was 0.601, P<0.001). The positive expression rates of TTLL12 and Ki-67 in 45 cases of hilar cholangiocarcinoma were 66.7% (30/45) and 77.8% (35/45), respectively, which were higher than those in adjacent tissues 11.1% (5/45) and 15.6% (7/45), and the differences were statistically significant ( χ2=11.25, 29.01, both P<0.001). The positive expression of TTLL12 and Ki-67 in hilar cholangiocarcinoma was correlated with lymph node metastasis and tumor differentiation (all P<0.05). The median overall survival time was 44 months in TTLL12 negative group and 21 months in TTLL12 positive group. The 5-year survival rate of TTLL12 carcinoma tissue negative expression group was 33.1%, which was better than that of TTLL12 carcinoma tissue expression positive group (18.3%), and the difference was statistically significant ( χ2=6.12, P=0.013). Conclusions:The expression of TTLL12 in hilar cholangiocarcinoma was higher than that in paracancerous tissues, and there was a positive correlation between TTLL12 and Ki-67 in carcinoma tissues. The positive expression of TTLL12 is closely related to tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis of patients. TTLL12 may be a marker for predicting the prognosis of patients with hilar cholangiocarcinoma.