The identification of molecular prognostic markers for pancreatic cancer patients could provide insightful information for their management in the clinic. The aim of the study is to investigate whether or not the expressions of c-Myc and Fas (CD95/APO1) have prognostic relevance for overall survival (OS) in patients with pancreatic cancer. we used immunohistochemistry on tissue microarrays containing 162 pancreatic cancer specimens to assess the protein expression levels of c-Myc and Fas. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that high level of c-Myc cytoplasmic expression was significantly correlated with worse survival in patients with pancreatic cancer (P = 0.012), while high level of Fas cytoplasmic expression was significantly associated with better outcome of pancreatic cancer (P = 0.046). However, multivariate Cox model analysis showed that tumor differentiation, lymph node status and c-Myc cytoplasmic expression were significant independent prognostic factors for OS (P < 0.001, P = 0.023, P = 0.001, respectively). On the contrary, Fas cytoplasmic expression did not independently influence patient's prognosis (P = 0.249). Our data suggested that high level of c-Myc cytoplasmic expression may be considered as a valuable marker for prognosis of pancreatic cancer.
Keywords: Fas (CD95/APO1); Pancreatic cancer; c-Myc; immunohistochemistry; survival analysis.