Clinical significance of CD155 expression in human pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Background/aim: CD155 is expressed in many types of human cells and has diverse functions. We herein evaluated the clinical importance of CD155 in pancreatic cancer.

Materials and methods: We investigated CD155 expression in 134 patients with pancreatic cancer, and evaluated the correlations of CD155 with prognosis, tumor immunity and angiogenesis. Furthermore, CD155 functions were examined.

Results: CD155 expression was abundant in pancreatic cancer tissues. Patients with high CD155 expression had poorer postoperative prognosis than those with low expression. Multivariate analysis indicated that CD155 expression had a significant independent prognostic value. Tumor CD155 expression inversely correlated with the presence of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. Furthermore, it significantly positively correlated with vascular endothelial growth factor expression and intra tumoral microvessel density. In addition, silencing of CD155 inhibited proliferation, and induced cell-cycle arrest at G2/M phase in pancreatic cancer cells.

Conclusion: CD155 may play a critical role through both immunological and non-immuno logical mechanisms in pancreatic cancer and may be a therapeutic target for this intractable malignancy.

Keywords: CD155; angiogenesis; pancreatic cancer; prognostic factor; tumor immunity.