Expression of novel tumor markers of pancreatic adenocarcinomas in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas (IHCCs) are morphologically and biologically similar to pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs), so newly identified PDAC-associated genes or proteins could provide clues for screening novel biomarkers for IHCC. In this study, the expression of three novel PDAC tumor markers (T-box transcription factor-4 [TBX4], heat shock protein-60 [HSP60], and Parkinson protein-7 [DJ-1]) identified in previous proteomic studies in IHCC tumors were immunohistochemically detected. The current study confirmed that three novel pancreatic cancer biomarkers TBX4, HSP60, and DJ-1 were also overexpressed in IHCC tumors, but with a relatively lower expression level than PDAC. No significant association was found between tumor marker expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of IHCC patients except that TBX4 expression correlated with tumor grades. Moreover, DJ-1 was demonstrated to be an independent prognostic factor for these patients. The current findings suggest that DJ-1 might play an important role in the malignant progression of IHCC, and its exact mechanism during IHCC progression deserves further investigation.