Back to Program | 2010 Program and Abstracts Overview | 2010 Posters

Backgrounds: Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs) of the pancreas are indicated the possibility to be a model of multistep carcinogenesis of pancreatic cancer, because they include a spectrum of neoplasms like adenoma, borderline lesion, carcinoma in situ (CIS), and invasive adenocarcinoma (invasive). Survivin, a member of the apoptosis inhibitor family, shows increased expression in human cancers of various origins. It has been demonstrated that survivin inhibits apoptosis via caspase inhibition and promotes mitosis via aurora-B kinase activation. Objectives: To evaluate survivin and aurora-B kinase expression in IPMNs, which have potential to clarify the carcinogenesis of the pancreatic neoplasms and to be a biomarker of earlier diagnosis of pancreatic malignancy.Methods: Survivin and aurora-B kinase expression were evaluated by immunohistochemistry in a total of 168 lesions from 85 patients who underwent pancreatic resection for IPMNs which included invasive IPMNs (n=22), CIS IPMNs (n=32), borderline IPMNs (n=14), and adenoma IPMNs (n=17).Results: The nuclear overexpression of survivin was observed in 15 of 15 (100%) invasive IPMNs, 20 of 43 (47%) CIS IPMNs, 2 of 14 (14%) borderline IPMNs, and 9 of 77 (12%) adenoma IPMNs, respectively. The nuclear overexpression of aurora-B kinase was observed in 6 of 15 (40%) invasive IPMNs, 17 of 43 (40%) CIS IPMNs, non of 14 (0%) borderline IPMNs, and 2 of 62 (3%) adenoma IPMNs, respectively, while no hyperlastic lesion had overexpression of survivin and aurora-B kinase. There were significant differences in the expression of survivin between invasive IPMNs and CIS IPMNs (p<0.001), and in the expression of survivin and aurora-B kinase between CIS IPMNs and adenoma IPMNs (p<0.001 for both). There were also significant differences in the expression of survivin and aurora-B kinase between malignant IPMNs and benign IPMNs (p<0.001 for both).Conclusions: These results suggested that survivin may play important roles in the transition from CIS IPMNs to invasive IPMNs of the pancreas. Moreover, survivin and aurora-B kinase overexpression may indicate the carcinogenesis of IPMNs of the pancreas and they may be useful biomarkers for earlier diagnosis of pancreatic malignancy.