Expression of Beclin 1 and Bcl‑2 in pancreatic neoplasms and its effect on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma prognosis

Abstract

Aberrant expression of Beclin 1 and B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) has been identified in a variety of human tumors; however, little information is available for pancreatic neoplasms. The present study analyzed the expression of Beclin 1 and Bcl-2 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (SPN) of the pancreas, and evaluated their prognostic significance for PDAC. The present study included 117 PDAC, 43 SPN and 32 chronic pancreatitis (CP) cases. Levels of Beclin 1 and Bcl-2 expression were evaluated semiquantitatively by immunohistochemistry, and their correlation with the survival of patients with PDAC was determined. Beclin 1 was upregulated in 74 (63.2%) PDAC, 26 (60.5%) SPN, and 14 (43.8%) CP cases. Bcl-2 was upregulated in 38 (32.5%) PDAC, 11 (25.6%) SPN and 24 (75.0%) CP cases. High Beclin 1 and low Bcl-2 expression was significantly correlated with poor differentiation and distant metastasis in PDAC, and associated with the presence of nuclear pleomorphism in SPN and with advanced Tumor-Node-Metastasis stage in PDAC. Beclin 1 and Bcl-2 levels were inversely correlated in PDAC, whereas they were positively correlated in SPN. Low Beclin 1 and high Bcl-2 expression was associated with improved disease-free survival and overall survival (OS). However, the association of Beclin 1 with survival was not significant in the Cox analysis, whereas Bcl-2 expression was significantly correlated with OS in the multivariate analysis. In conclusion, Beclin 1 upregulation exacerbated the progression and aggressiveness of pancreatic neoplasms, and Bcl-2 downregulated expression was an independently poor prognostic factor for PDAC.

Pancreatic panniculitis and solid pseudopapillary tumor of the pancreas: A case report

“…Postoperative pathology confirmed the result of preoperative imaging diagnosis. Immunophenotyping showed synaptophysin (+), CD56(+), CD10(+), β-catenin(+), vimentin (+), and AE1/AE3(+), which met the diagnostic criteria for SPTP, and was consistent with the histopathological diversity of SPTP[12-14]. Vimentin, β-catenin, synaptophysin, neuron-specific enolase, α1-antitrypsin (α1-AT), S-100, neural cell adhesion molecule CD56, and cluster of differentiation 10 (CD10) can all be expressed in SPTP[15-17].…”

HisCoM-PAGE: Hierarchical Structural Component Models for Pathway Analysis of Gene Expression Data

“…Upregulated SMAD3 promotes epithelial mesenchymal transition and predicts poor PDAC [60,61]. Also, it has been reported that BCL2 downregulated expression is a poor prognostic factor for PDAC [62]. TGF-β1 levels are significantly related to PDAC patients’ prognosis [63].…”

Beclin‑1 expression is associated with prognosis in a Bcl‑2‑dependent manner in non‑small cell lung cancer

“…A previous study has indicated that in breast cancer Beclin-1 may serve a role in the inhibition of the development of breast cancer, which may be due to an interaction with the Bcl-2 protein (30). In pancreatic cancer, a study by Shanshan et al (10) demonstrated that high Bcl-2 and low Beclin-1 expression was associated with an improved DFS and OS. The present study further evaluated the expression levels of Beclin-1 in NSCLC tissue specimens with different expression levels of Bcl-2 via immunohistochemical staining.…”

“…However, the binding of Bcl-2 to Beclin-1 is regulated by a variety of proteins, which enhance or inhibit the Beclin-1/Bcl-2 interaction and further inhibiting or activating autophagy and apoptosis, thus the Beclin-1/Bcl-2 complex act as a crosstalk between autophagy and apoptosis (9). Previous studies have demonstrated that the expression levels of Beclin1 and Bcl-2 in tumor cells depend on the tumor and tissue type (10)(11)(12); however, this requires further investigation.…”