3697 - The expression of Versican and its role in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor

Background

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET) is rare and heterogeneous. New biomarkers are needed for better predicting the prognosis and providing individualized treatment. Versican (VCAN) plays an important role in tumorigenesis. Our previous study showed VCAN was specifically expressed in pNET tumor tissue. Therefore, we planned to investigate the role of VCAN in pNET prognosis.

Methods

Clinical and pathological data of pNET patients who underwent surgery between 2005 and 2010 were followed up and evaluated. VCAN expression was assessed by immunohistochemical (IHC) methods, and the relationship between VCAN and prognostic features of pNET was analyzed.

Results

Among 161 pNET patients, 118 (73.3%) pNET were VCAN expression positive and 43 (26.7%) VCAN expression negative. Positive expression of VCAN in pNET was significantly associated with longer disease-free survival (DFS) compared with VCAN-negative pNET (p = 0.017, HR 0.399, 95%CI 0.215-0.741). Subgroup analysis showed that VCAN-positive expression was associated with longer DFS in the G1 subgroup (p = 0.030, HR = 0.122, 95%CI: 0.013-1.180), tumor size>2cm subgroup (p = 0.030, HR = 0.427, 95%CI: 0.193-0.944) and NF-pNET subgroup (p = 0.001, HR = 0.251, 95%CI: 0.103-0.617). Multiple analysis showed that VCAN-negative expression, G2 and tumor size>2cm were independent factors for poor prognosis in pNET (p = 0.01, p < 0.001, p = 0.009, respectively).

Conclusions

Our data indicate that VCAN-positive expression may serve as an independent factor for predicting DFS prognosis in pNET. VCAN-positive expression in pNET tissues was correlated with longer DFS.

Clinical trial identification

Editorial acknowledgement

Legal entity responsible for the study

The authors.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Disclosure

All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.