HBXIP protein overexpression predicts the poor prognosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas

Background: Hepatitis B virus X-interacting protein (HBXIP) is associated with a variety of tumors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinicopathological significance of HBXIP expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and to explore its potential as a biomarker for PDAC.Methods: Immunohistochemical (IHC) staining was performed on 126 PDAC tissues, 36 paraneoplastic tissues and 22 normal pancreatic tissues. The relationship between high levels of HBXIP expression and pathological features of PDAC patients was evaluated by chi-squared values.Results:The positive rate of HBXIP protein in PDAC tissues was 85.7% (108/126), which was significantly higher than that of adjacent pancreatic tissue (41.7%, 15/36) and normal pancreas (18.2%, 4/22). In addition, strong positive expression of HBXIP was associated with tumor size, positive lymph node metastasis, clinical stage and 80-month overall survival. Patient's age, gender, degree of differentiation, Ki-67 expression index, and calcification were, however, not associated with high levels of HBXIP expression.Conclusions:We present association between HBXIP expression and the pathological features of patients with PDAC.