title: Ep-CAM is a significant prognostic factor in pancreatic cancer patients by suppressing cell activity.
abstract: The identification of molecular markers useful for predicting prognosis in pancreatic cancer patients is crucial for advances in disease management. The epithelial cell adhesion molecule (Ep-CAM) is known to express in most epithelial malignancies and was reported as a tumor marker or a candidate of molecular targeting therapy. However, the clinical significance of Ep-CAM expression in pancreatic cancer is not well-known. We determined the difference of malignant potential between parental and Ep-CAM-transfected pancreatic cancer cell lines by using proliferation, invasion and migration assay. Furthermore, we determined the relationship between tumoral Ep-CAM expression of resected specimens and clinical prognosis in 95 pancreatic cancer patients receiving radical surgery at two different cancer centers. One of the three Ep-CAM-transfected cell lines showed significantly low proliferation rate compared with the parental cell, while there was no difference in the other two cell lines. In invasion and migration assays, Ep-CAM-transfected cells showed significantly lower malignant potential than parental in all of the three cell lines. In 95 pancreatic cancer patients, 47 patients showed high-Ep-CAM expression, while 48 patients showed low, and there was no difference of clinicopathological features between Ep-CAM high and low-expression group. High-Ep-CAM expression group showed significantly good prognosis in overall survival (3-year survival; 56.2 versus 19.2%, P=0.0018) as well as in disease-free survival (3-year survival; 40.3 versus 14.4%, P=0.038) compared with low-expression group. In addition, the impact of Ep-CAM was observed strongly in LN-negative group when the influence of Ep-CAM was examined with dividing patients into LN-positive and negative group. In multivariate analysis, Ep-CAM expression was one of the independent prognostic factors as well as histology and lymph node metastasis. Ep-CAM expression was found to be related to the suppression of pancreatic cancer cell activity and the good prognosis in pancreatic cancer patients receiving the curative resection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akita
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nagano
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Eguchi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Marubashi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tanemura
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ohigashi
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ishikawa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Doki
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; C499379:EPCAM protein, human; D000071858:Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule