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BackgroundClinical factors determining short-term survival after pancreatectomy have been well studied, but factors predicting long-term survival with curative resection are poorly understood in pancreatic carcinoma. Our objective was to identify clinical and pathological features of five-year disease-free survivors after surgical resection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma.MethodsThe clinical and pathological data from 147 patients who underwent a potentially curative resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma at our institution between 1988 and 2012 were retrospectively analyzed.ResultsOf 147 patients, 18 survived for more than five years after surgery without disease recurrence. A univariate analyses demonstrated that: two or fewer lymph node metastases (P = 0.014), a preoperative serum carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) level of 40 U/mL or less (P = 0.0018), an absence of intrapancreatic nerve invasion (P = 0.028), and undergoing an R0 resection (P = 0.011) were significantly associated with five-year survival. A logistic regression model identified the following independent cancer-related predictors of five-year survivors: having two or fewer lymph node metastases (odds ratio (OR): 6.02; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08 to 112.98; P = 0.0385), a preoperative serum CA19-9 level of 40 U/mL or less (OR: 5.02; 95% CI: 1.68 to 16.48; P = 0.0036), and undergoing an R0 resection (OR: 3.63; 95% CI: 1.12 to 14.28; P = 0.0316).ConclusionsWe conclude that number of lymph node metastases being two or less, a preoperative serum CA19-9 level of 40 U/mL or less, and undergoing an R0 resection may be independent predictive factors to identify actual five-year survivors after pancreatectomy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

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BackgroundThe present study aimed to elucidate the clinicopathologic role of insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1R) and IGF binding protein-3 (IGFBP3) in patients with pancreatic cancer. The function of IGFBP3 is controversial, because both inhibition and facilitation of the action of IGF as well as IGF-independent effects have been reported. In this study, IGF1R and IGFBP3 expression was examined, and their potential roles as prognostic markers in patients with pancreatic cancer were evaluated.MethodsClinicopathological features of 122 patients with curatively resected pancreatic cancer were retrospectively reviewed, and expression of IGF1R and IGFBP3 was immunohistochemically analyzed.ResultsExpression of IGF1R and IGFBP3 was observed in 50 (41.0%) and 37 (30.3%) patients, respectively. IGF1R expression was significantly associated with histological grade (p = 0.037). IGFBP3 expression had a significant association with tumor location (p = 0.023), and a significant inverse association with venous invasion (p = 0.037). Tumors with IGF1R-positive and IGFBP3-negative expression (n = 32) were significantly frequently Stage II and III (p = 0.011). The prognosis for IGF1R positive patients was significantly poorer than that for IGF1R negative patients (p = 0.0181). IGFBP3 protein expression did not correlate significantly with patient survival. The subset of patients with both positive IGF1R and negative IGFBP3 had worse overall survival (8.8 months versus 12.6 months, respectively, p < 0.001).ConclusionIGF1R signaling might be associated with tumor aggressiveness, and IGFBP3 might show antiproliferative effects in pancreatic cancer. Both high IGF1R expression and low IGFBP3 expression represent useful prognostic markers for patients with curatively resected pancreatic cancer.

Boiled seed hardness is an important factor in the processing of soybean food products such as nimame and natto. Little information is available on the genetic basis for boiled seed hardness, despite the wide variation in this trait. DNA markers linked to the gene controlling this trait should be useful in soybean breeding programs because of the difficulty of its evaluation. In this report, quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis was performed to reveal the genetic factors associated with boiled seed hardness using a recombinant inbred line population developed from a cross between two Japanese cultivars, ‘Natto-shoryu’ and ‘Hyoukei-kuro 3’, which differ largely in boiled seed hardness, which in ‘Natto-shoryu’ is about twice that of ‘Hyoukei-kuro 3’. Two significantly stable QTLs, qHbs3-1 and qHbs6-1, were identified on chromosomes 3 and 6, for which the ‘Hyoukei-kuro 3’ alleles contribute to decrease boiled seed hardness for both QTLs. qHbs3-1 also showed significant effects in progeny of a residual heterozygous line and in a different segregating population. Given its substantial effect on boiled seed hardness, SSR markers closely linked to qHbs3-1, such as BARCSOYSSR_03_0165 and BARCSOYSSR_03_0185, could be useful for marker-assisted selection in soybean breeding.