Prognostic significance of autophagy-related proteins expression in resected pancreatic cancer.

Abstract

e14634 Background: Autophagy is a critical intracellular pathway for removal of aggregated proteins and damaged organelles. The aim of this study was to explore the contribution of autophagy-related proteins on clinical outcomes of patients with resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Methods: The expression of five autophagy-related proteins in the PDCA tissues of 73 patients was evaluated by immunohistochemistry using a tissue array method. In addition, clinicopathological characteristics and survival were compared with the expression of autophagy-related proteins. Results: Of the 73 patients, autophagy-related proteins expression frequencies were 49.3% (36/73) for ATG5, 63.9% (46/72) for Ambra 1, 47.9% (35/73) for Beclin-1, 83.3% (60/72) for LC3B, and 69.9% (51/73) for Bif-1. The correlation between the expressions of autophagy-related proteins was statistically significant in all protein pairs. Advanced T stage was marginally associated with a higher number of protein changes (p = 0.059). Multivariate analysis revealed that Beclin 1 overexpression or increases in alteration of autophagy-related proteins were independently associated with poor prognosis (hazard ratio 5.365, p=0.001 and hazard ratio 5.270, p=0.022, respectively). Conclusions: The acquisition of autophagy-related proteins is associated with poor clinical outcome in PDCA. The awareness and inhibition of autophagy offer a potential therapeutic target for PDCA.