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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: jcp.2006.037333v1 jcp.2006.037333v2 61/1/31    most recent Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this link to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Add article to my folders Download to citation manager Request Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Fong, D Articles by Spizzo, G Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Fong, D Articles by Spizzo, G Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Bile Duct Diseases Pancreatic Cancer

Ep-CAM expression in pancreatic and ampullary carcinomas: frequency and prognostic relevance

¹ Division of Hematology and Oncology, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria
² Department of Pathology, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria
³ Department of Biostatistics, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria
⁴ Tyrolean Cancer Research Institute, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria

Correspondence to:
Dominic Fong, MD, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria; dominic.fong{at}i-med.ac.at

Aims: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is an aggressive gastrointestinal malignancy with only a few long-term survivors even after radical surgery. Patients with ampullary cancer have a better prognosis but adjuvant therapy needs further improvement. Epithelial cell adhesion molecule (Ep-CAM) is strongly expressed in a variety of epithelial cancers and represents a promising target for immunological tumour therapy. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate Ep-CAM expression and its potential prognostic impact in pancreatic and ampullary carcinomas.

Methods: Ep-CAM expression was investigated retrospectively by immunohistochemistry in paraffin-embedded primary tumour tissue samples from a series of consecutive patients with pancreatic (n = 153) and ampullary cancer (n = 34).

Results: Ep-CAM overexpression was observed in 85 of 153 pancreatic cancer specimens (56%) and in 29 of 34 ampullary cancer samples (85%). Overall, Ep-CAM failed to be an independent prognostic marker. However, subgroup analyses showed that Ep-CAM overexpression correlated with shorter overall survival among patients with ampullary cancer and advanced stage pancreatic cancer. In the latter subgroup, survival gradually worsened with increasing Ep-CAM scores. Furthermore, in ampullary cancer, Ep-CAM overexpression was found to correlate with tumour stage.

Conclusions: Ep-CAM overexpression was detectable in the majority of cases with pancreatic and ampullary cancer. Therefore, Ep-CAM represents an attractive target for immune-based therapeutic interventions in these tumour entities. However, the prognostic value of Ep-CAM overexpression remains undetermined.

Keywords: epithelial cell adhesion molecule; Ep-CAM; pancreatic cancer; ampullary cancer