Clinicopathological and prognostic significance of MUC13 and AGR2 expression in intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms of the pancreas

Background

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) of the pancreas is a primary pancreatic ductal epithelial neoplasm with the potential to develop into an invasive adenocarcinoma. This study aimed to investigate the clinicopathologic and prognostic significance of four potential biomarkers for the preoperative evaluation of patients with IPMN.

Materials and methods

Clinicopathologic materials from 104 patients with IPMN who underwent surgical resection at Jichi Medical University Hospital were analyzed. IPMNs (110 lesions in total) were histologically classified into low-grade IPMN (Group 1; n?=?68), high-grade IPMN (Group 2; n?=?16), or IPMN with an associated invasive carcinoma (Group 3; n?=?26). We evaluated the immunohistochemical expression of MUC13, AGR2, FUT8, and FXYD3, which were previously reported to be overexpressed in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

Results

The expression of MUC13 was more common in Group 3 compared with groups 1 and 2 (p?p?=?0.004). The expression of MUC13 was not associated with age, sex, tumor location, histological subtype, lymphatic or vascular invasion, or neural invasion. In most cases of IPMN, the loss of expression of AGR2 appeared to show an association with tumor recurrence and poorly differentiated histology of invasive carcinoma; however, this association was not statistically significant. The expressions of FUT8 and FXYD3were not associated with the clinicopathological features of IPMNs.

Conclusions

The results suggest that MUC13 overexpression and loss of expression of AGR2 may predict the progression of IPMN and an unfavorable prognosis in patients with IPMN.