Clinical significance of serum survivin in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

OBJECTIVE

We investigate the clinical significance of survivin levels in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The serum level of survivin from patients with PDAC (n = 80) and age-matched healthy volunteers (n = 80) were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) prior to surgical resection. Expression levels were correlated with clinicopathological parameters.

RESULTS

Serum survivin concentrations were significantly elevated in PDAC patients when compared to healthy sera (p = 0.001). High serum survivin levels were significantly associated with perineural invasion, venous invasion, lymph node status (N stage), histologic grade and T stage, but not with the tumor size, age, gender of the patients or tumor location. The median overall survival of the normal serum survivin group was longer than that of the elevated serum survivin group. The independent factors associated with overall survival were advanced pancreatic cancer and elevated serum survivin level.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with elevated serum survivin level at diagnosis demonstrated poor overall survival. Pretreatment survivin level may predict the prognosis of patients with PDAC.