title: Prognostic significance of B7-H4 expression in matched primary pancreatic cancer and liver metastases.
abstract: Liver metastasis development in pancreatic cancer patients is common and confers a poor prognosis. Clinical relevance of biomarker analysis in metastatic tissue is necessary. B7-H4 has an inhibitory effect on T cell mediated response and may be involved in tumor development. Although B7-H4 expression has been detected in pancreatic cancer, its expression in liver metastases from pancreatic cancer is still unknown. In this study, overall 43 pancreatic cancer liver metastases (with matched primaries in 15/43 cases) and 57 pancreatic cancer cases without liver metastases or other distant metastases were analyzed for their expression of B7-H4 by immunohistochemistry. Survival curves and log-rank tests were used to test the association of B7-H4 expression with survival. B7-H4 was highly expressed in 28 (65.1%) of the 43 liver metastases and 9 (60.0%) of the 15 matched primary tumors. The expression of B7-H4 in liver metastases was significantly higher than in the matched primary tumors (p < 0.05). Patients with high B7-H4 expression in their primary pancreatic cancer had higher risk of developing liver metastases (p < 0.05). In univariate analysis, B7-H4 expression was significantly associated with the risk of death (p < 0.05). And the multivariate analysis identified that B7-H4 was an independent prognostic indicator (p < 0.05). Our results revealed B7-H4 to be associated with poor prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer liver metastasis. B7-H4 may promote pancreatic cancer metastasis and was promising to be a potential prognostic indicator of pancreatic cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, China.
authors.forename: Yiwen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sang
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, The University of Texas at Dallas, Texas 75080, USA.
authors.forename: Frederick X C
authors.initials: FX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310009, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China.
authors.forename: Xinhui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China.
authors.forename: Tianhao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China.
authors.forename: Zhigang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, Collaborative Innovation Center for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China.
authors.forename: Hangping
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D001706:Biopsy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D060907:V-Set Domain-Containing T-Cell Activation Inhibitor 1 / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D060907:V-Set Domain-Containing T-Cell Activation Inhibitor 1; C475826:VTCN1 protein, human
keywords: B7-H4; immunohistochemistry; liver metastases; pancreatic cancer; survival analysis