CAJ | 학술논문

AIM: We examined quantitative mRNA expression of growth factor receptors (c-erbB-1, c-erbB-2) and the anti-apoptosis gene survivin known to be regulated in pancreatic adenocarcinomas and compared the expression pattern with that in carcinomas of the papilla of Vater.METHODS: Quantitative real-time reverse transcriptasePCR (QRT-PCR, TaqmanTM) was performed to analyze mRNA expression levels of c-erbB-1, c-erbB-2 and survivin in normal and corresponding tumor samples of 31 pancreatic adenocarcinomas and 8 cancers of the papilla of Vater.RESULTS: The overall median mRNA expression of survivin was significantly increased in both adenocarcinoma of the pancreas (P＜0.01) and papilla of Vater (P＜0.008) compared with uninvolved normal control tissue. In pancreatic cancer, expression of c-erbB-1 was significantly decreased compared with the normal pancreatic tissue (P＜0.03), whereas in the cancer of the papilla of Vater expression of c-erbB-2 was significantly downregulated (P＜0.05) compared with the paired normal samples. Gene expression was not associated with tumor stage, differentiation or prognosis.CONCLUSION: The common anti-apoptosis gene survivin is overexpressed both in the cancer of the papilla of Vater and pancreas. In contrast, the growth factor receptor genes c-erbB-1 and c-erbB-2 are differentially regulated in both tumor entities adding further evidence that pancreatic cancer is biologically different from the cancer of papilla of Vater.