Overexpression of folate receptor alpha is an independent prognostic factor for outcomes of pancreatic cancer patients

• Published in: Medical molecular morphology 2018-12, Vol.51 (4), p.237-243
• Main Authors: Omote, Shizuma, Takata, Katsuyoshi, Tanaka, Takehiro, Miyata-Takata, Tomoko, Ayada, Yoshiyuki, Noujima-Harada, Mai, Omote, Rika, Tabata, Tetsuya, Sato, Yasuharu, Toyokawa, Tatsuya, Kato, Hironari, Yagi, Takahito, Okada, Hiroyuki, Yoshino, Tadashi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anatomy; Folic acid; Medical prognosis; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Molecular Medicine; Original Paper; Pancreatic cancer; Pathology; Prognosis; Surgery; Survival; Therapeutic applications; Tumor markers
• ISSN: 1860-1480; 1860-1499
• DOI: 10.1007/s00795-018-0197-8

Pancreatic cancer has a poor prognosis; hence, novel prognostic markers and effective therapeutic targets should be identified. We aimed to evaluate folate receptor alpha (FR-α) expression in pancreatic cancer and examine its association with clinicopathological features. We utilized tissue samples from 100 primary pancreatic cancer patients who underwent surgery. FR-α was expressed in 37 of 100 cases (37%). The FR-α-positive group (median, 18.8 months) had a significantly poorer prognosis than the FR-α-negative group [median 21.3 months; HR 1.89 (1.12–3.12); P  = 0.017]. These groups were not significantly different regarding progression-free survival ( P  = 0.196). Furthermore, other serum tumor markers including CA19-9 (mean, 186 vs. 822 U/ml; P  = 0.001), Dupan-2 (286 vs. 1133 U/ml; P  = 0.000), and Span-1 (69.7 vs. 171.9 U/ml; P  = 0.006) were significantly downregulated in the FR-α-positive group. CA19-9 was another prognostic factor, in addition to FR-α, and patient prognosis showed clear stratification curves with the expression of these two molecules. Along with CA19-9, FR-α expression was an independent prognostic factor for the overall survival. FR-α and CA19-9 helped predict patient prognosis based on stratification curves.