Abstract
Background/Aims: The mucin-associated trefoil factor (TFF) peptides are integral to cytoprotection. TFF-3 is aberrantly expressed in colorectal and hepatocellular cancer and associated with an invasive phenotype. TFF-3 is also expressed in normal biliary epithelium. However, its role in biliary cancers is unknown. The biological effects of TFFs may result from EGFR, PI3 kinase, COX-2 and STAT-mediated signaling. We investigated the expression of TFF-3, Erk, Akt, EGFR and COX-2 in biliary cancer. Methodology: Twenty-four consecutive cases of cholangiocarcinoma treated from 1996-2002 were studied. Immunohistochemistry was performed using monoclonal antibodies to TFF-3, EGFR, pEGFR, Erk, pErk, Akt, pAkt and COX-2 using validated techniques. Kendall's tau (exact method) and Pearson correlation test were employed to investigate the associations between biomarkers. Results: Median age was 67 years. Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) stage was local in 1, regional in 15 and distant in 8. TFF-3 expression was detected in 19 cases. There were no significant associations between TFF-3 expression and sex, stage, grade, survival or SEER score. Erk expression in the tumor showed a borderline, negative correlation with TFF-3 (Pearson's ρ= -0.3988, p=0.0588). Conclusions: TFF-3 is commonly expressed in biliary cancers and may have a negative reciprocal relationship with Erk expression.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1339-1344 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Hepato-Gastroenterology |
Volume | 54 |
Issue number | 77 |
State | Published - Jul 2007 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Cholangiocarcinoma
- Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR)
- Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK/Erk)
- Signaling proteins
- Trefoil Factor
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Hepatology
- Gastroenterology