Survivin expression and its clinical significance in pancreatic cancer.
BACKGROUND
Survivin, an inhibitor of apoptosis is expressed in several human cancers. Its expression is known to be associated with poor clinical outcome, but not widely studied in pancreatic cancer. We performed this study to determine the survivin expression in pancreatic cancer and its clinical significance as a prognostic factor.


METHODS
We performed immunohistochemical staining for survivin, p53, and Bax in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded block from forty-nine pancreatic tissues. To determine the association with clinical course, we reviewed the patients' clinical record.


RESULTS
Of the 49 cases of pancreatic cancer, 46 cases (93.9%) were positive for survivin expression. There was no significant association between survivin expression and p53 or bax. For clinicopathological parameters, perineural invasion was more common in survivin positive and venous invasion was more common in survivin negative (p = 0.041 and 0.040, respectively). Responsiveness to chemotherapy appeared to be slightly better in patients with low survivin expression.


CONCLUSIONS
Survivin expression may be associated with venous or perineural invasion, indicating metastatic route, and seems to have a potential as a predictive marker for chemotherapy. Further study of large scale is required to determine the clinical significance of survivin expression in pancreatic cancer.
Lee
Myung Ah
MA
Division of Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Catholic University of Medical College, Seoul, Korea. angelamd@catholic.ac.kr
Park
Gyeong-sin
GS
Lee
Hee-Jung
HJ
Jung
Ji-Han
JH
Kang
Jin-Hyoung
JH
Hong
Young Seon
YS
Lee
Kyung Shik
KS
Kim
Dong-gu
DG
Kim
Seung-Nam
SN
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017209:Apoptosis; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D008297:Male; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009154:Mutation; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011379:Prognosis; D000077022:Survivin; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein / Q000096:biosynthesis
C107489:BIRC5 protein, human; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D000077022:Survivin; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein