The prognostic significance of clinicopathological features and apoptosis inhibitor proteins in pancreas ductal adenocarcinoma

Introduction : Pancreas ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is among tumors with unfavorable prognosis. The aim of this study was to determine potential prognostic factors in PDAC. Materials and methods : We retrospectively evaluated a total of 117 cases according to clinicopathological parameters and survivin and livin expression. We investigated the relationship between these parameters and their prognostic significance. Results : In univariate analysis, lymph node metastasis, surgical margin positivity, tumor size over 4 cm and survivin expression were associated with poorer survival but livin expression was not correlated with survival-time. In multivariate analysis, only lymph node metastasis was independent factor predicting a poorer outcome. Conclusions : In present study, the lymph node metastasis was the strongest predictor of survival. Our finding suggest that survivin could be a target for the treatment of advanced stage resectable PDAC. Our results need to be supported by studies on larger series with advanced techniques.