Expression of podoplanin in stromal fibroblasts plays a pivotal role in the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer.

PURPOSE: To investigate the role of podoplanin (PDPN) expression in invasive ductal carcinoma of the pancreas (IDCP) in humans.

METHODS: Tumor samples were obtained from 95 patients with IDCP. Immunohistochemical staining was done to evaluate the expression of PDPN in cancer tissues.

RESULTS: PDPN was detected predominantly in stromal fibroblasts, stained with α-smooth muscle actin. The cutoff value of PDPN-positive areas was calculated according to a histogram. There was no significant difference in clinicopathologic factors between patients with high vs. those with low PDPN expression. The high PDPN group showed significantly poorer disease-free and disease-specific survival rates than the low PDPN group. Among patients from the high PDPN group, those with lymph node metastases and those with a tumor larger than 20 cm in diameter had significantly poorer prognoses than similar patients from the low PDPN group. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analysis indicated that a high expression of PDPN was an independent risk factor for disease-specific survival.

CONCLUSIONS: PDPN expression in cancer-related fibrotic tissues is associated with a poor prognosis, especially in patients with large tumors or lymph node metastases.