Elevated tissue expression of RANKL and RANK is associated with poorer survival rates in pancreatic cancer patients
Miguel A Ortega1,2,3, Laura Jiménez-Álvarez1,4, Oscar Fraile-Martinez1,2, Cielo Garcia-Montero1,2, Diego De León-Oliva1,2, María del Val Toledo-Lobo2,5, Esther Palacios6, Paula Granado6, Alfonso Esteban6, Luis G Guijarro2,7, Leonel Pekarek2,8, Ángel Asúnsolo9,10, Laura López-González2,4, Julia Bujan1,2, Natalio García-Honduvilla1,2, Melchor Álvarez-Mon1,2,11, Miguel A Saez1,2,12* and Raúl Díaz-Pedrero2,4,9*
1Department of Medicine and Medical Specialities, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Alcalá, Alcala de Henares, 2Ramón y Cajal Institute of Sanitary Research (IRYCIS), Madrid, 3Cancer Registry and Pathology Department, Principe de Asturias University Hospital, Alcala de Henares, 4Department of General and Digestive Surgery, General and Digestive Surgery, Príncipe de Asturias Teaching Hospital, Alcala de Henares, 5Unit of Cell Biology, Department of Biomedicine and Biotechnology, University of Alcala, Alcala de Henares, Madrid, 6Inari Biotech S.L., Madrid, 7Unit of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Department of System Biology (CIBEREHD), University of Alcalá, Alcala de Henares, 8Oncology Service, Guadalajara University Hospital, Guadalajara, 9Department of Surgery, Medical and Social Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Alcalá, Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain, 10Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, University of New York, New York, NY, United States, 11Immune System Diseases-Rheumatology, Oncology Service and Internal Medicine (CIBEREHD), University Hospital Príncipe de Asturias, Alcala de Henares and 12Pathological Anatomy Service, Central University Hospital of Defence-UAH Madrid, Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain
*These authors have senior authorship
Corresponding Author: Miguel A Ortega and Oscar Fraile-Martinez, Department of Medicine and Medical Specialities, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Alcalá, 28801 Alcala de Henares, Spain. e-mail: miguelangel.ortega@uah.es or oscarfra.7@hotmail.com
Summary. Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy with a growing incidence reported worldwide. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common type of pancreatic cancer, which is often diagnosed at advanced stages, making its prognosis and medical management difficult. The identification of histopathological biomarkers has allowed a more precise stratification of pancreatic cancer patients, providing additional information about their prognosis and offering possible therapeutic targets to be explored. The prognostic value of the receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B (RANK) and its ligand (RANKL) has been evaluated in breast and prostate tumors, however, their usefulness has not been assessed in pancreatic cancer. In the present work, we analyzed the relationship between the protein expression of RANK and RANKL with the survival of 41 patients with pancreatic cancer followed for 60 months, by performing immunohistochemistry and Kaplan-Meier curves. Our results demonstrate a direct association of high expression levels of RANK and RANKL with poorer survival of pancreatic cancer patients in comparison to those with low/medium and null expression levels of both markers. Further studies should be conducted to explore the carcinogenic role of both components in this type of tumor, as well as additional promising translational uses. Histol Histopathol
Key words: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma, Receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B (RANK), Receptor activator of nuclear factor-kappa B ligand (RANKL), cancer survival, Prognostic biomarkers
DOI: 10.14670/HH-18-700
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©The Author(s) 2024. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY International License. |
