Fascin expression is correlated with tumor progression of extrahepatic bile duct cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Fascin, an actin-crosslinking protein, participates in cell motility. Fascin over-expression induces a high potential for invasion and metastasis in various malignancies. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship of fascin expression to clinicopathological findings in patients with extrahepatic bile duct cancer. Furthermore, we investigated the correlation between fascin expression and intracellular adhesion molecular (E-cadherin and beta-catenin).


METHODS
We evaluated the expression of fascin, E-cadherin and beta-catenin by immunohistochemistry in surgical specimens from 26 patients with extrahepatic bile duct cancer.


RESULTS
Normal epithelial cells of the bile duct was not immunoreactive for fascin, and cancer cells often show immunoreactivity, which was found more frequently at the invasive tumor fronts than at other tumor areas. The present study demonstrated a statistically significant correlation between fascin expression and gender, tumor status, vascular invasion, and disease stage. We detected that increased immunoreactivity for fascin had tendencies to disrupt membranous immunoreactivity for E-cadherin and beta-catenin.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that fascin expression is correlated with tumor progression. The expression of fascin is frequently detected at the invasive tumor fronts, indicating that invading tumor cells express fascin abundantly. In tumor cells with an over-expression of fascin, E-cadherin and betacatenin expressions often disrupt membranous immunoreactivity.
Okada
Kohji
K
Department of General Surgical Science (Surgery 1), Gunma University, Graduate School of Medicine, Maebashi, Japan. okako@med.gunma-u.ac.jp
Shimura
Tatsuo
T
Asakawa
Kaori
K
Hashimoto
Shinji
S
Mochida
Yasushi
Y
Suehiro
Taketoshi
T
Kuwano
Hiroyuki
H
D000368:Aged; D001650:Bile Duct Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D017734:Bile Ducts, Extrahepatic; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D018450:Disease Progression; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008840:Microfilament Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000378:metabolism*
D015820:Cadherins; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; D051176:beta Catenin; C020324:fascin