N-cadherin and P-cadherin are biomarkers for invasion, metastasis, and poor prognosis of gallbladder carcinomas

• Published in: Pathology, research and practice Vol. 210; no. 6; pp. 363 - 368
• Main Authors: Yi, Shengen, Yang, Zhu-lin, Miao, Xiongying, Zou, Qiong, Li, Jinghe, Liang, Lufeng, Zeng, Guixiang, Chen, Senlin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Elsevier GmbH 01.06.2014
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma; Adenocarcinoma - chemistry; Adenocarcinoma - secondary; Adenosquamous carcinoma; Adult; Aged; Antigens, CD - analysis; Biomarkers, Tumor - analysis; Cadherins - analysis; Carcinoma, Adenosquamous - chemistry; Carcinoma, Adenosquamous - secondary; Cell Differentiation; Female; Gallbladder cancer; Gallbladder Neoplasms - chemistry; Gallbladder Neoplasms - pathology; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Lymphatic Metastasis; Male; Metastasis; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; N-cadherin; Neoplasm Invasiveness; Neoplasm Staging; P-cadherin; Predictive Value of Tests; Prognosis; Proportional Hazards Models; Risk Factors; Squamous cell carcinoma; Time Factors; Tumor Burden; Adenocarcinoma; Adenosquamous carcinoma; Squamous cell carcinoma; Prognosis; N-cadherin; P-cadherin; Metastasis; Gallbladder cancer
• ISSN: 0344-0338; 1618-0631; 1618-0631
• DOI: 10.1016/j.prp.2014.01.014

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is a rare, but highly aggressive cancer. The most common type of gallbladder cancer is adenocarcinoma (AC), while squamous cell/adenosquamous carcinoma (SC/ASC) is a rare type of gallbladder cancer. The clinicopathologic and biological characteristics of SC/ASC have not been well documented. In this study, the protein expression of N-cadherin and P-cadherin in 46 SC/ASCs and 80 ACs was measured using immunohistochemistry. We demonstrated that positive N-cadherin and P-cadherin expression were significantly associated with large tumor size, invasion, and lymph node metastasis of both SC/ASC and AC. In contrast, positive N-cadherin and P-cadherin expression were significantly associated with differentiation and TNM stage in only AC. Univariate Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that positive N-cadherin and P-cadherin expression, differentiation, tumor size, TNM stage, invasion, lymph node metastasis, and surgical curability were significantly associated with overall survival in both SC/ASC and AC patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that positive N-cadherin and P-cadherin expression are independent poor-prognostic factors in both SC/ASC and AC patients. Our study suggested that positive N-cadherin and P-cadherin expression closely correlated with clinicopathological and biological behaviors, and poor-prognosis of gallbladder cancer.