Intratumoral Heterogeneity of SMAD4 Immunohistochemical Expression and Its Role in Prediction of Recurrence Pattern in Patients with Resectable Pancreatic Cancer.

Background: The aim of our study was to evaluate consistency of SMAD4 expression in different tumor areas and its correlation with recurrence pattern in patients after resection for pancreatic cancer (PC).

Methods: Records of patients who underwent resection for nonmetastatic PC between 2001 and 2015 were analyzed. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue sections from different areas of primary tumor and lymph node metastases were analyzed immunohistochemically (IHC) for SMAD4 expression using TMA technology.