Clinical Signifi cance of Decoy Receptor 3 Expression in Pancreatic Carcinoma

Objective To investigate the expression of DcR3 and correlation between DcR3 and prognosis in pancreatic carcinoma. Methods DcR3 protein expressions in tissues and sera were respectively detected by i mmunohistochemistry(IHC) and ELISA. Correlations between DcR3 expression and prognosis were analyzed. Results DcR3 staining positive cells were located in cytoplasm. The positive rate of DcR3 in pancreatic carcinoma tissues was 50 % (25/50) higher than that in non-cancerous tissues was (24%, 12/50), (P < 0.05). The level of DcR3 in serum of pancreatic carcinoma before operation was （73.71±18.26）pg/ml, showing a signifi cant difference compared to cystadenoma(7.96±1.25) pg/ml (P<0.01),and signifi cantly decreased after operation (19.76±4.52) pg/ml, P < 0.01.The median survival time of these patients was 27.4 months. Patients with higher levels of DcR3 had signifi cantly shorter survival time than those with lower levels of DcR3(P ＜0.05). The cox regression analysis showed tumor size, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, and levels of DcR3 were associated with survival. Conclusions DcR3 protein was over-expressed in tissues and sera of pancreatic carcinoma. DcR3 in serum should be considered as a novel parameter for clinical diagnosis and prognostic judgement in pancreatic carcinoma.