Increased expression of aTubulin is associated with poor prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer after surgical resection

Abstract

Background: aTubulin, the essential orchestrator of cytoskeletal protein polymers, critical for cell growth and division, motility, signaling development and maintenance of cell shape, plays vital roles in the oncogenesis and progression of various types of cancer, but its role in prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients remains unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate its prognostic value in patients with pancreatic cancer after surgical resection. Results: aTubulin expression in pancreatic cancer was significantly associated with N classification (p = 0.013) and TNM stage (p = 0.025). Increased expression of aTubulin in tumoral tissue was associated with decreased overall survival rate (p = 0.002). Multivariate Cox regression analysis suggested that aTubulin expression was an independent prognostic indicator for pancreatic cancer except for T and N classification (p = 0.002). Using multivariate analysis, aTubulin expression, CA19-9, and N classification were selected to generate the nomogram to predict the 1-year and 3-year overall survival. The c-index of this model was 0.692. The calibration curve for probability of survival showed good agreement between prediction by nomogram and actual observation. Methods: aTubulin expression was evaluated by tissue microarrays from 124 pancreatic cancer patients and statistically assessed for correlations with the clinical profiles and the prognosis of the patients with pancreatic cancer. The prognostic nomogram was designed to predict 1-year and 3-year overall survival probability. Conclusions: aTubulin expression might be an independent prognostic factor for pancreatic cancer after surgical resection and could potentially be a high-priority therapeutic target. Incorporating aTubulin expression into CA19-9 and N classification can provide a good prognostic model.