文摘

High-mobility group box (HMGB) proteins are ubiquitous, abundant nuclear non-histone chromosomal proteins that play a critical role in binding to distorted DNA structures and subsequently regulating DNA transcription, replication, repair, and recombination. Both HMGB1 and HMGB2 exhibit a high expression in several human cancers and are closely associated with tumor progression and a poor prognosis. However, the expression patterns of these molecules in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remain to be elucidated. As most cases of postoperative relapse of PDAC occur within the first 2?years, the clinical significance of accurate biomarkers is needed. Therefore, we investigated the correlation between the immunohistochemical HMGB1 and HMGB2 expression and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis using 62 paraffin-embedded tumor samples obtained from patients with surgically resected PDAC. The HMGB1/2 expression was considered to be positive when 10?% or more of the cancer cells showed positive nuclear, not merely cytoplasmic, staining. Consequently, the expression of HMGB1/2 was observed in 54 (87.1?%) and 31 (50.0?%) patients, respectively. Unexpectedly, a positive HMGB1 expression was found to have a significantly close relationship with a negative HMGB2 expression. The univariate and multivariate analyses demonstrated that the patients with a HMGB1+ and HMGB2?status had markedly lower disease-specific survival rates, especially within the first 2?years postoperatively, whereas those with a HMGB1+ status alone did not. Therefore, the combination of a HMGB1+ and HMGB2?expression potentially predicts a poor prognosis in patients with PDAC, and these new biomarkers may be useful parameters for clinical management in the early postoperative phase.