The Implications of E-cadherin Expression in Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive neoplasia and has a fatal prognosis, with approximately 85% of patients diagnosed in advanced stages of the disease. The purpose of this study was to determine if the loss of e-cadherin expression in pancreatic pancreatic is a predictor of the prognosis of this disease. This research is based on a retrospective study performed on a group of 81 patients who benefited from pancreatic resection in our Surgical Clinic, between January 2008 and December 2016 and assessing the positivity of e-cadherin. There were no correlations between e-cadherin expression and other clinic-pathological factors, including gender, age, tumor status, lymph node metastasis, microscopic vascular invasion, perineural invasion. Low-differentiated pancreatic cancer was more likely to exhibit e-cadherin expression loss than well-differentiated forms of cancer (p-0.07). The mean survival in e-cadherin positive patients (17.1 months) was significantly worse compared to those with E-cadherin absent (6.8 months).In conclusion, we found that partial loss of e-cadherin in primary pancreatic adenocarcinomas is an independent predictor of a negative outcome among patients with curative surgical resection of pancreatic lesions.