Clinical Significance of Serum NEDD9 Levels in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer.

INTRODUCTION

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a lethal malignancy. Various diagnostic, predictive, and prognostic biomarkers have been evaluated. This study was conducted to investigate the serum levels of neural precursor cell expressed developmentally downregulated protein 9 (NEDD9) in patients with PC and the relationship between tumor progression and known prognostic parameters.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Serum samples were obtained on first admission before any treatment. Serum NEDD9 levels were determined using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Age- and sex-matched healthy controls were included in the analysis.

RESULTS

In a three year period, 32 patients with a pathologically-confirmed diagnosis of PC were enrolled in this study. The median age at diagnosis was 61 years, range 38 to 84 years; the majority of the patients in the group were men ( = 20, 62.5%). The tumor was located in the head of pancreas in 21 (65.6%) patients. Forty-one percent of 17 metastatic patients who received palliative CTx (chemotherapy) were CTx-responsive. The baseline serum NEDD9 levels were significantly higher in patients with PA than in the control group ( = 0.03). Median OS of the whole group were 27 ± 7.3 weeks. Alcohol intake, performance status, and LDH levels were found to be significant prognostic factors ( = 0.006, 0.001, and < 0.001, respectively). However, serum NEDD9 levels had no significantly effect on progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) ( = 0.71 and = 0.58, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

NEDD9 is identified as a secretory biomarker for PC but it has no prognostic role.