Expression of E-cadherin and uPA and their association with the prognosis of pancreatic cancer.
OBJECTIVE
E-cadherin (ECD) and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) have been noted as markers for tumor metastasis and prognosis in several tumors. We thus investigated the relationship between the expression of ECD and uPA and the clinicopathological characteristics in pancreatic cancer.


METHODS
The expression of ECD and uPA was evaluated in pancreatic cancer tissues from 53 patients.


RESULTS
Among 53 tumor tissues, those from 29 (54.7%) patients showed positive ECD expression and those from 22 (41.5%) patients showed positive expression of uPA. There were four subgroups of ECD/uPA expression: ECD-positive/uPA-negative, ECD-negative/uPA-negative, ECD-positive/uPA-positive and ECD-negative/uPA-positive. These patterns were found in 14 (26.4%), 11 (20.8%), nine (17%) and 19 (35.8%) patients, respectively. The tumor tissues with ECD-negative and uPA-positive expression were associated with larger tumor, distant metastasis and an increased clinical stage. There was a difference in the median survival time between the patients with ECD-positive/uPA-negative pancreatic tissues (median: 18.7 months) and the patients with ECD-negative/uPA-positive pancreatic tissues (median: 7.5 months, P < 0.05), and there was a statistically significant difference in survival curves between these two groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The combined analysis concerning uPA and E-cadherin expression may be a useful predictor of metastasis in pancreatic cancer.
Shin
Sang Joon
SJ
Division of Oncology-Hematology, Department of Medicine, Yeungnam University College of Medicine, Daemyeung-Dong, 317-1, Namg-Gu, Daegu 705-717, South Korea.
Kim
Kyeong Ok
KO
Kim
Min Kyoung
MK
Lee
Kyung Hee
KH
Hyun
Myung Soo
MS
Kim
Keuk Jun
KJ
Choi
Joon Hyuk
JH
Song
Hong Seok
HS
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015820:Cadherins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D019043:Vascular Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology
D015820:Cadherins; D014568:Urokinase-Type Plasminogen Activator