To determine the expressions of Tbx3, a member of subgroup belonging to T-box family, and its prognostic value in pancreatic carcinoma.
We determined the expression levels of Tbx3 on both mRNA and protein levels in 30 pairs of fresh tumor tissues and paratumor tissues by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blotting, respectively. In addition, protein level of
... [Show full abstract] Tbx3 were identified using immunochemistry in 80 pairs of paraffin-embedded specimen. The correlations between Tbx3 expression and various clinicopathological parameters as well as overall survival were evaluated.
Tbx3 mRNA and protein levels in tumor tissues were significantly higher than in the paratumor tissues by qRT-PCR (0.05 ±0.007 vs. 0.087±0.001, p<0.001) and western blotting (1.134±0.043 vs. 0.287±0.017, p<0.001). The statistical analysis based on immunohistochemical evaluation suggested that Tbx3 aberrant expression was significantly associated with several conventional clinicopathological variables, such as gender, age, tumor position, preoperative CA19-9 level, pathological T staging and N staging. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that Tbx3 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (<0.001).
Our results suggest that overexpression of Tbx3 is associated with poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients. However, additional clinical trials are needed to accurately validate this observation.