Survivin expression is a prognostic marker in pancreatic cancer patients.

Background: In this study, we assessed survivin expression in pancreatic cancer specimens from patients who underwent either pancreatic resection alone or pancreatic resection plus postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) to evaluate whether survivin expression is predictive of sensitivity to PORT and outcome in pancreatic cancer patients.

Methods: Fifty-two patients who underwent pancreatic resection for ductal adenocarcinomas were included in this study. Forty-seven pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and 5 normal pancreatic tissues were evaluated for survivin expression by immunohistochemistry. Then the relationship between survivin expression and clinicopathologic data were analyzed.

Results: Sixty-eight percent (32/47) of pancreatic cancer tissues were positive for survivin expression; 32% (15/47) were negative. Normal pancreatic exocrine tissues were negative for survivin expression (0/5). Survival of the patients with positive survivin was significantly shorter than those with negative survivin (P = .02). Survivin was an independent variable that correlated with overall survival (P = .01). There was no difference in survival time between patients with and without PORT. Likely, PORT showed no impact on survival time in survivin-positive patients (P = .12) as well as in survivin-negative patients (P = .95).

Conclusions: The results suggest that survivin expression in pancreatic cancer tissues could be a useful prognostic marker in pancreatic cancer patients.