Study On The Effects Of DEK Protein As A Biomarker In Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

AIM:This study is aimed to investigate the relationship the expression of DEK protein and clinicopathological features in Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), and provided a possible new biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of PDAC.Methods:Total 139 cases of pancreas, including 52 of normal pancreas and 87 of PDACs, were examined by immunohistochemical staining for DEK protein, and the significance to clinical data of PDAC was further analyzed.Results:The immunohistochemical staining results showed that DEK protein principally localized in nucleus of cells, but only three pancreas were double positive staining for DEK protein in cytoplasm and nucleus of cells. DEK protein staining positive rate and strongly positive rate (52.9% and 13.8%) were significantly higher in PDAC compared with normal pancreas (7.7% and 0%)(both P<0.01). DEK protein staining positive rate are positively correlated with tumor size, differentiation, grading and clinical TNM stage (P<0.05), however, DEK protein expression level was not correlated with the patient gender, age, and lymph node metastasis (P>0.05). These results suggested that DEK protein could be a new biomarker for poor prognosis of PDAC.Conclusions:DEK protein over-expressed in PDACs, and showed the significant positive correlation with the tumor size, differentiation, grading and clinical TNM stage of PDAC. DEK might be an effective biomarker for prognostic evaluation and therapy target of PDAC.