The analysis of thymidine phospholyrase and mucin expression related to invasion and metastasis in pancreas cancer

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We found the close relationship between overexpression of thymidine phosphorylase(TP) or membrane-bound type mucin(MUC1) and hematogeneous metastasis or poor prognosis in various type of cancer. The incidence of TP overexpression was high in pancreatic cancer. Cell movement and invasion was promoted by TP, but apoptosis was suppressed by TP. TP was closely related to invasion and metastasis in cancer cell because TP inhibitor suppressed the expression of TP. Furthermore, we found that TP was related to the HIF-1 pathway in avoidance of apoptosis. MUC1 expression correlated well with the malignant biological behavior in pancreatic cancer. We reported the new classification of intraductal papillary-mucinous tumor in the pancreas by intestinal type secretory mucin(MUC2) expression.Pancreatic cancer is one of the most aggressive cancers in solid tumor. The high incidence of recurrent disease was found after curative resection. We examined the presence of lymph node micrometastasis in pancreatic cancer. Lymph node micrometastasis was highly found even in pN0 pancreatic cancer. The clinical significance should be clarified in the large number of patients, especially in the distant lymph node micrometastasis.The expression of VEGF-C and -D was immunohistochemically examined in pancreatic cancer. The incidence of VEGF-C and -D overexpression was significantly higher in the marginal portion than in the central portion of the tumor. Prognosis of patients with high expression of both VEGF-C and -D in the marginal portion was significantly poorer than that of patients with loe expression of both VEGF-C and -D. The examination of VEGF-C and -D expression by biopsy specimens will be useful to predict the malignant property in pancreatic cancer.