Clinicopathological significance of expression of CIP 2 A and c-myc in human gallbladder carcinoma

CIP2A (cancerous inhibitor of phosphatase 2A) and c-myc are abnormally expressed in many malignant tumors, and are involved in occurring and progressing of malignant tumors. The aim of this study is t o investigate the expression of CIP2A and c-myc in human gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) and to explore their clinical and pathological significance. The expression of CIP2A and c-myc protein was detected in 65 cases of human GBC and 19 cases of tumor-adjacent tissues by immunohistochemical method. Our results demonstrate that the positive rate of CIP2A was 64.6% in human GBC which was higher than that in tumor-adjacent tissues (26.3%), P=0.001. Patients with high CIP2A expression were significantly related to size (P=0.040), differentiation (P=0.015), TNM stage (P=0.011) and lymphatic metastasis (P=0.004). The positive rate of c-myc was 58.5% in GBC tissues, which was higher than that in tumor-adjacent tissues (15.8%), P=0.001. The positive rate of c-myc protein was significantly related to size (P=0.001), differentiation (P=0.005), TNM stage (P=0.002) and lymphatic metastasis (P=0.031). CIP2A protein was positively correlated with c-myc protein (r=0.617, P<0.001). Patients with higher CIP2A or c-myc expression had shorter overall survival time, while patients with lower CIP2A or c-myc expression had better survival time. Cox multivariate analysis showed that size, TNM stage, lymphatic metastasis, CIP2A as well as the c-myc expression were negatively correlated with overall survival of GBC (P=0.006, P=0.019, P=0.001, P=0.019 and P=0.030, respectively). In conclusion, the expression of CIP2A and c-myc are markedly related with size, differentiation, TNM stage and lymphatic metastasis of GBC. CIP2A is positively related with the expression of c-myc. To detect CIP2A and c-myc may be helpful to evaluate prognosis and infiltrative capability of GBC.