Overexpression of Tbx3 predicts poor prognosis of patients with resectable pancreatic carcinoma

Abstract

Background: To determine the expressions of Tbx3, a member of subgroup belonging to T-box family, and its prognostic value in pancreatic carcinoma. Materials and Methods: We determined the expression levels of Tbx3 on both mRNA and protein levels in 30 pairs of fresh tumor tissues and paratumor tissues by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting, respectively. In addition, protein level of Tbx3 were identified using immunochemistry in 80 pairs of paraffin-embedded specimen. The correlations between Tbx3 expression and various clinicopathological parameters as well as overall survival were evaluated. Results: Tbx3 mRNA and protein levels in tumor tissues were significantly higher than in the paratumor tissues by qRT-PCR (0.05 ±0.007 vs. 0.087±0.001, p < 0.001) and western blotting (1.134±0.043 vs. 0.287±0.017, p < 0.001). The statistical analysis based on immunohistochemical evaluation suggested that Tbx3 aberrant expression was signifificantly associated with several conventional clinicopathological variables, such as gender, age, tumor position, preoperative CA19-9 level, pathological T staging and N staging. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that Tbx3 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival ( < 0.001). Conclusions: Our results suggest that overexpression of Tbx3 is associated with poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients. However, additional clinical trials are needed to accurately validate this observation.