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Increased EpCAM expression in malignant insulinoma: potential clinical implications
Andreas Raffel1, Claus F Eisenberger, Kenko Cupisti
1Department of General, Institute of Pathology, University Hospital of the Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Moorenstrasse 5, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany. raffel@med.uni-duesseldorf.de
Objective:
EpCAM (CD326) is overexpressed in progenitor cells of endocrine pancreatic islands of Langerhans during fetal development and was suggested to act as a morphoregulatory molecule in pancreatic island ontogeny. We tested whether EpCAM overexpression is reactivated in insulinomas, endocrine tumors arising in the pancreas.
Design/Method:
We used monoclonal anti-EpCAM antibody Ber-Ep4 for immunohistochemistry on formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tumor material. We analyzed 53 insulinomas: 40 benign (disease stage
Results:
In 38% of the benign insulinomas (disease stage
Conclusion:
This first EpCAM expression study in benign/malignant insulinomas indicates that strong EpCAM expression could help to identify patients at risk for malignant disease and might be used as a therapeutic target for antibody-based therapies in patients with metastatic insulinoma.
