The Expression Of MEKK3 In Human Pancreatic Cancer And Its Relationship With Clinicopathological Features And Prognosis

OBJECTIVE: Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumor with high malignancy and poor prognosis.There is no specific treatment at present.Mitogen activated protein kinase kinase kinase 3(MEKK3)is an important member of the MAPK family.It is widely expressed in various mammalian tissues and plays an importantrole in the occurrence,development and drug resistance of various tumors.To detect the expression of MEKK3 in human pancreatic cancer tissues by immunohistochemical staining,and to study the relationship between MEKK3 expression and clinicopathological characteristics of pancreatic cancer.METHODS: From May 2015 to November 2017,62 tissue specimens from 31 patients who were operated in Z Hospital and confirmed as pancreatic cancer by pathology after operation were selected.Pancreatic cancer tissues and adjacent tissues were collected.The age,sex and clinicopathological characteristics of tumors were retrospectively analyzed,and the prognostic information such as tumor-free survival time and overall survival time were followed up by telephone.Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of MEKK3 in human pancreatic cancer tissues and adjacent tissues.The difference of MEKK3 expression between pancreatic cancer tissues and adjacent tissues was calculated by Chi-square test.The relationship between the abnormal expression of MEKK3 in pancreatic cancer tissues and clinical data was analyzed by Fisher’s exact probability method.The Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to analyze the relationship between the abnormal expression of MEKK3 in pancreatic cancer tissues and the prognosis of patients.RESULTS: A total of 31 cases were included in the study.After observation and statistics,the number of high expression of MEKK4 in pancreatic cancer tissues was22,the positive rate was 71%(22/31),and the number of high expression cases in adjacent tissues was 14 cases,the positive rate was 45.2%(14/31),the positive expression rate of MEKK3 in pancreatic cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues,and the difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).There was no significant difference in the expression of MEKK3 among age,sex,T stage and lymph node metastasis groups(P > 0.05).There was significant difference in the expression of MEKK3 among TNM stage,vascular invasion and nerve invasion groups(P < 0.05).According to the Kaplan-Meier survival curve analysis,the tumor-free survival time of MEKK3 low-expression pancreatic cancer cases was longer than that of high-expression cases(P<0.05).The overall survival time of patients with low expression of MEKK3 was longer than that of patients with high expression(P<0.05).CONCLUSIONS: The expression of MEKK3 in pancreatic cancer tissues is significantly increased,which may promote the occurrence,development and even drug resistance of pancreatic cancer.Compared with cases of pancreatic cancer with low expression of MEKK3,the tumor-free survival time and overall survival time of patients with high expression of MEKK3 are significantly lower,indicating a worse prognosis.The results of this study help to clarify the relationship between MEKK3 and pancreatic cancer,and provide a reference for the subsequent study of the biological behavior of MEKK3 in pancreatic cancer.