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Immunohistochemical Analysis of Human Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter-1 (hENT1) Predicts Survival in Resected Pancreatic Cancer Patients Treated with Adjuvant Gemcitabine Monotherapy

  • Translational Research and Biomarkers
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Abstract

Background

Gemcitabine is a promising adjuvant treatment for patients with resected pancreatic cancer. Human equilibrative nucleoside transporter-1 (hENT1) is the major transporter responsible for gemcitabine uptake into cells. The aim of this study was to retrospectively determine the relationship between the outcome of pancreatic cancer after surgery followed by postoperative gemcitabine monotherapy and the expression of hENT1.

Methods

A total of 27 resected pancreatic cancer patients treated with adjuvant gemcitabine were analyzed for tumor hENT1 expression via an immunohistochemical analysis. The staining intensity and the percentage of positive tumor cells were scored, and the composite score (hENT1 score) was obtained by obtaining the sum of these two scores.

Results

There were 11 patients assigned to the low hENT1 expression group, and 16 patients to the high hENT1 group. The patients with tumors that had higher hENT1 expression had a significantly longer disease-free survival (DFS) (log rank, P = 0.022) and overall survival (OS) (P = 0.024). The hENT1 expression was indicated to be a significant and independent prognostic factor for OS by the univariate (P = 0.030) and multivariate analyses (P = 0.019).

Conclusions

A high expression of hENT1 in pancreatic cancer was found to be significantly associated with a longer survival in patients who received adjuvant gemcitabine monotherapy after curative resection, and hENT1 immunohistochemistry may well serve as a significant prognostic factor for these patients.

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Acknowledgment

This study was partially supported by grants from Kanagawa Prefectural Hospitals Cancer Fund. The authors declare that they have no potential conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Kanagawa Cancer Center, Yokohama, Japan

    Soichiro Morinaga MD PhD, Takuo Watanabe MD, Hiroshi Mikayama MD, Hiroshi Tamagawa MD, Naoto Yamamoto MD, Manabu Shiozawa MD PhD & Makoto Akaike MD PhD

  2. Department of gastrointestinal Medicine, Kanagawa Cancer Center, Yokohama, Japan

    Shinnichi Ohkawa MD PhD

  3. Department of Pathology, Kanagawa Cancer Center, Yokohama, Japan

    Yoichi Kameda MD PhD

  4. Department of Molecular Pathology, Kanagawa Cancer Center, Yokohama, Japan

    Yoshiyasu Nakamura & Yohei Miyagi MD PhD

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  1. Soichiro Morinaga MD PhD
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  2. Yoshiyasu Nakamura
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  3. Takuo Watanabe MD
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  4. Hiroshi Mikayama MD
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  5. Hiroshi Tamagawa MD
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  6. Naoto Yamamoto MD
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  7. Manabu Shiozawa MD PhD
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  8. Makoto Akaike MD PhD
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  9. Shinnichi Ohkawa MD PhD
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  11. Yohei Miyagi MD PhD
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Correspondence to Soichiro Morinaga MD PhD.

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Morinaga, S., Nakamura, Y., Watanabe, T. et al. Immunohistochemical Analysis of Human Equilibrative Nucleoside Transporter-1 (hENT1) Predicts Survival in Resected Pancreatic Cancer Patients Treated with Adjuvant Gemcitabine Monotherapy. Ann Surg Oncol 19 (Suppl 3), 558–564 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-011-2054-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-011-2054-z

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