Expressions and clinical significances of Livin and vascular endothelial growth factor in human pancre-atic carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expressions of Livin and vascular endothelial growth factor （VEGF）in pancreatic carcinoma and their cilinical significances.Methods The expressions of Livin and VEGF proteins were tested by immunohistochemistry in 68 cases of pancreatic carcinomas and 44 cases of adja-cent paracancerous tissues.Results The positive rates of Livin in pancreatic carcinomas and adjacent paracan-cerous tissues were 73.5% and 4.5% respectively,and the difference was statistically significant （χ2 =48.137,P<0.001）.The positive rates of VEGF in pancreatic carcinomas and adjacent paracancerous tissues were 69.1% and 13.6% respectively,and the difference was statistically significant （χ2 =29.147,P <0.001）.The expressions of Livin and VEGF were related with tumor differentiation （χ2 =6.061,P=0.014;χ2 =6.592,P=0.010）,TNMstage （χ2 =4.175,P=0.041;χ2 =9.992,P=0.002）,lymph node metasta-sis （χ2 =11.731,P=0.001;χ2 =12.002,P=0.001）and neural invasion （χ2 =9.950,P=0.002;χ2 =7.433,P=0.006）.Significantly positive correlation was found between the expressions of Livin and VEGF by using Spearman correlation analysis （r=0.320,P=0.008）.Survival analysis showed that the expressions of Livin and VEGF were independent prognostic factors in pancreatic carcinoma.Conclusion Livin and VEGF involve in the development,migration and metastasis of pancreatic carcinoma.Livin may upregulate the expres-sion of VEGF,which may lead to the angiogenesis and migration in pancreatic carcinoma. Key words: Pancreatic neoplasms; Gene; Vascular endothelial growth factors; Immunohischemistry