The relationship of B7-H1 with clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of pancreatic carcinoma

Objective To investigate the relationship between expression of B7-H1 and clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis of pancreatic carcinoma. Methods The expression of B7-H1 in 46 cases of pancreatic cancer and 5 cases of normal pancreas tissues were detected by western blot and immunohistochemistry,respectively.The Spearman correlation test was used to analyze the correlation between B7-H1 expression and CA199.Survival curve was drawn by the Kaplan-Meier method,and variation of survival rate was determined by Log-rank test.Multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression model was used to analyze the independent risk factor of pancreatic carcinoma. Results The immunohistochemistry findings revealed that B7-H1 was highly expressed in carcinoma tissue(26/46),while there were no significant expressions in normal pancreatic tissues.The Western-blotting results showed that pancreatic carcinoma samples demonstrated the up-regulated expression of B7-H1(0.512±0.125) at protein level compared with normal pancreas tissues(0.122±0.027).Statistical analysis showed that the expressions of B7-H1 have relationship with lymph node metastasis,clinical stages and pathological differentiation(P<0.05).Spearman correlation coefficient showed association between B7-H1 expression and CA19-9 levels.B7-H1-negative expression prolonged postoperative survival when compared with corresponding positive ones(P<0.05) as in survival study.B7-H1-positive expression was the independent factors of prognosis assessment of pancreatic carcinoma. Conclusion These findings demonstrated the up-regulated B7-H1 expression in human pancreatic carcinoma tissues may serve as a novel biomarker for tumor progression and prognosis.