Relationship between prognosis of gallbladder carcinoma patients and the expression of E-cadherin/α-catenin

Michito Mori, Kohji Miyazaki, Kenji Kitahara, Shinsuke Mukai, Kentaro Motomaya and Genichiro Edakuni^*

Department of Surgery and Pathology^*, Saga Medical School

The process of progression and metastasis from a malignant neoplasm consists of sequential steps, some of which can be largely affected by intercellular adhesion between cancer cells. Since E-cadherin is one of the major molecules involved in adhesion between cells in normal and malignant epithelial tissues, we immunohistochemically measured the expression of E-cadherin and α-catenin, an E-cadherin-associated cytoplasmic protein that regulates E-cadherin function, in gallbladder carcinomas. Then comparison of the expression mode of these proteins with histologic parameters and the prognosis in 32 patients with primary gallbladder carcinoma was performed. Five cases (15.6%) with preserved expression of both E-cadherin and α-catenin had no lymph node metastasis, lymphatic invasion, vascular invasion or perineural invasion, and their depth of invasion was limited to less than the subserosal layer. The cumulative 5-year survival rate of this group was 100%.
However, most of 15 cases with reduced or negative expression of either E-cadherin or α-catenin and 12 cases with negative expression of both E-cadherin and α-catenin were in the advanced stage of the disease with carcinoma invasion deeper than se. Lymph node metastasis (43.8%), lymphatic invasion (59.4%), vascular invasion (25.0%) and perineural invasion (37.5%) also accompanied these groups. The cumulative 5-year survival rates of these groups were 33.9% and 19.0%, respectively, and are significantly poorer compared with the survival rate of the patient with preserved expression of both E-cadherin and α-catenin (p<0.01). In conclusion, determination of E-cadherin and α-catenin expression in gallbladder carcinoma is expected to provide useful information with regard to the prognosis.

Key words
E-cadherin,α-catenin, gallbladder carcinoma, prognosis

Reprint requests
Michito Mori Department of Surgery, Saga Medical School 5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga, 849-8501 JAPAN

Accepted
March 23, 2000

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