Expression And Clinical Significance Of Twist And E-cadherin In Pancreatic Cancer

OBJECTIVES:To investigate the expression of the Twist and the E-cadherin,two tumorrelated gene in pancreatic cancer and analyze its significance in the invasion and metastsisof pancreatic cancer.METHODS:46 paraffin-embeded pancreatic cancer specimens and 10 normal pancreatictissue specimens were collected from patients surgically treated at Shanxi meidical universityfirst hospital from January 1998 to March 2010.The expression of Twist and Ecadherinwas detected by immunohistochemistry.RESULTS:(1)The positive rate of Twist expression in pancreatic cancer was 67.4%(31/46),whereas that in normal pancreatic tissue was 20%(2/10).There was a statistical differencebetween them(P<0.01).(2)The positive rate of E-cadherin expression in pancreaticcancer and in normal pancreatic tissue was 19.6%(9/46),100%(10/10), respectively.Therewas a statistical difference between them(P<0.01).(3) The expression of Twist was correlatedwith tumor differentiation,clinical stage and tumor lymph node metastasis(all P<0.05),while not correlated with patients'age,sex and tumor position.(4)The expression of E-cadherinwas correlated with tumor differentiation,clinical stage and tumor lymph node metastasis,(all P<0.05),while not correlated with patients'age, sex and tumor position.(5)A significantnegative correlation was noted between the expression of Twist and E-cadherinin pancreatic cancer(r=-0.358,P<0.05).CONCLUSION:(1) The expression of Twist was significantly higher in pancreaticcancer than in normal pancreatic tissue.The expression of Twist was associated with thedifferentiation of cancer, the clinical stages, lymph node metastasis and was increasedwith the heightening the clinical stages, the degradeing differentiated degree and lymphnode metastasis.(2)The expression level of E-cadherin in pancreatic cancer was significantlydecreased compared with that in normal pancreatic tissue,and it was significantly correlatedwith the differentiation of cancer,the clinical stage and lymph node metastasis,which indicated that E-cadherin was correlated with the proliferation,tumor metastasis,cancerprogression and tumor cell adhesion of pancreatic cancer.(3) The abnormal expressionof Twist and E-cadherin was correlated with the progression of pancreatic cancer.Twistover-expression may be involved in the invasion and metastasis of pancreatic cancer.