Adhesion molecules as prognostic markers in pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is a highly aggressive cancer with high metastatic potential and therefore, a high mortality rate. Ezrin, radixin, moesin, and E-cadherin are transmembrane glycoproteins that regulate cell motility, migration, and metastasis. In this study, we investigated the relationship of ezrin, moesin, and E-cadherin expression with the clinicopathological features of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Data including demographic features, size and grade of tumor, presence of perineural and lymphovascular invasion, and survival were obtained retrospectively from 46 patient records.

No significant correlation was found among ezrin, moesin, and E-cadherin. Significant correlations were found between ezrin and the tomographic size of the tumor (P = 0.034) and resectability (P = 0.052). Moesin-stained tumors were found to have high lymphovascular (P = 0.030) and perineural (P = 0.036) invasion rates and a high histopathologic grade (P = 0.053). E-cadherin staining was correlated with perineural invasion (P = 0.003) but not with lymphovascular invasion (P = 0.334). Only moesin was correlated with survival in resected pancreatic adenocarcinomas and moesin-negative patients had longer survivals compared with moesin-positive patients (P = 0.021).

We could not demonstrate a relation between ezrin and E-cadherin staining with survival. However, we found ezrin to be related to local tumor behavior, and moesin to be a potential prognostic molecule.