Expression And Clinical Significance Of PSCA And Mesothelin In Pancreatic Carcinoma

Objective To investigate the expression of PSCA and Mesothelin in pancreatic carcinoma and their clinical significance.Methods The expression status of PSCA and Mesothelin was examined in 12 specimens of chronic pancreatitis,12 specimens of pancreatic pseudocyst,15 specimens of adjacent pancreatic tissues around cancer and 34 surgical specimens of primary pancreatic carcinoma by SP immunohistochemistry,and their relationship with clinicopathological parameters in pancreatic carcinoma was analyzed.PSCA mRNA expression was tested by RT-PCR in 10 cases of pancreatic carcinoma along with their corresponding adjacent tissues.Results(1)Positive expression of PSCA was detected in one case of chronic pancreastitis,while it was not detected in the specimens of pancreatic pseudocyst. However,we did not found positive expression of Mesothelin in these two kinds of tissues. (2)In one case of adjacent pancreatic tissue around cancer positive expression of PSCA was detected,whereas no positive expression of Mesothelin was found.(3)The positive rates of PSCA and Mesothelin in pancreatic carcinoma were 59%(20/34) and 64.7%(22/34), respectively.Furthermore,a significant positive relationship between the expression of PSCA and Mesothelin was observed(r=0.383,P=0.036).(4)Expressions of PSCA and Mesothelin in pancreatic carcinoma were evidently correlated with TNM stage and Lymph node metastasis(P＜0.05),but not with gender,age,tumor size and pathologic type(P＞0.05).Moreover,Mesothelin expression was correlated with vessel infiltration(P＜0.05). (5)Positive expression rate of PSCA mRNA in pancreatic carcinoma(9/10,90%) was observably higher than that in adjacent pancreatic tissues around cancer(3/10,30%)(P=0.02).Conclusions Our results suggest that there was low or no expression of PSCA and Mesothelin in chronic pancreatitis,pancreatic pseudocyst and adjacent tissues around cancer;while high expression was found in pancreatic carcinoma.Overexpressions of PSCA and Mesothelin play important roles in tumor development,invasion and metastasis of pancreatic carcinoma and may be used as important indicators to evaluate the biological characteristics of pancreatic carcinoma.