PROGNOSTIC-SIGNIFICANCE OF MOLECULAR ALTERATIONS IN HUMAN PANCREATIC-CARCINOMA - AN IMMUNOHISTOLOGICAL STUDY

Background: During the last decade, many molecular alterations have be en described for pancreatic carcinomas. However, the clinical and prog nostic value of these alterations has been discussed and is controvers ial. Methods: An immunhistochemical study was performed in 82 cases of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. Using specific antibodies, expression of EGF, EGF-receptor, cERB-B2, p53, p21(CIP1), cyclin-D1, BCL-2, CD95 and KI67 was evaluated. Results: Overexpression of the different mole cules was found in 44-69% of the pancreatic carcinomas. With regard to clinico-pathological features, p53 positivity was more frequently fou nd in advanced and undifferentiated rumours (P<0.05), EGF overexpressi on was significantly more frequent in advanced rumours (P<0.05) and CD 95 overexpression was observed to a greater extent in undifferentiated tumours (P<0.05). Besides cyclin-D1, none of the molecules tested was of prognostic significance. Patients whose rumours expressed cyclin-D 1 lived significantly shorter than patients with cyclin-D1-negative ru mours. However, in subgroup analyses of patients with the same tumour stage or tumour grade, even cyclin-D1 expression had no prognostic sig nificance. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that the prognostic s ignificance of the molecules tested here is low. Nevertheless, with re gard to tumorigenesis and tumour biology of pancreatic carcinoma, dete rmination of molecular alterations could provide important information about pancreatic cancer.