Protein expression study of IMP3 in pancreatic and lung cancers: pathological and clinical correlations

Abstract

Background Pancreatic cancer is one of the most important causes of cancer-related deaths. Similarly, lung cancer is the most common and deadly cancer among men worldwide. Resection specimen is required for diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Small biopsy is the main method for diagnosis of lung cancer. Immunohistochemistry is valuable in diagnosis and prognosis of both pancreatic cancer and lung cancer. IMP3 is a fetal protein not expressed in normal adult tissue. It is expressed in some malignant tumors such as lung and pancreas. In this study, we aimed to evaluate IMP3 protein expression in primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma and lung cancer and to correlate it with different clinicopathological variables. Patients and methods This study was performed by assessing IMP3 expression in 62 cases of pancreatic cancer and 15 cases of lung cancer and correlating results with different clinicopathological variables using immunohistochemistry. Results In pancreatic cancer cases, IMP3 was common in tumors involving both pancreas and duodenum and in tumors with lymphovascular invasion. In lung cancer cases, IMP3 was highly expressed in cases having collapse, effusion, and in high-grade tumors. Conclusions IMP3 could be a marker of aggressive behavior in certain patients with cancer, and this was delineated in both cases of pancreatic and lung cancer.