Nuclear translocation of fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 and its significance in pancreatic cancer

Nuclear translocation of fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (FGFR3) was previously observed in some kinds of cancer. However, whether the phenomenon occurs in pancreatic cancer (PC), a malignancy with very dismal prognosis, remains unknown. In the present study, FGFR3 expression was firstly detected by Western blot and immunohistochemical staining in specimens of PC. Then, its correlations with clinicopathologic features and patient survival were evaluated. It was shown that FGFR3 was highly expressed in all the nuclear extracts, but in only one out of four whole tissue lysates, of tumor tissues, in contrast to those of non-tumor ones. Using immunohistochemistry, nuclear expression of FGFR3 was found to mainly locate in tumor cells, and was significantly associated with N stage. Furthermore, high FGFR3 nuclear expression was revealed to be associated with poor overall and disease-free survival in univariate analysis. For overall survival in the whole cohort and disease-free survival in patients with curative resection, high nuclear expression of FGFR3 was significant or marginally significant in multivariate analysis. However, its cytoplasmic expression was not related to clinical, pathologic variables and prognosis. These data suggest that nuclear translocation of FGFR3 is frequent and carries clinicopathologic as well as prognostic significances in PC.