Abstract

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is an aggressive and highly lethal disease with relatively low global incidence, but one that constitutes a major health problem in Asian and Latin American countries, particularly in Chile. The identification of new tumor-associated markers with potential prognosis value is required for GBC clinical practice. Using immunohistochemistry/tumor tissue microarray, we evaluated the expression of 17 gastrointestinal tumor-associated protein markers (CK7, CK17, CK19, CK20, CKLMW, CKHMW, MUC1, MUC2, MUC5AC, MUC6, CA125, CD10, CEA, vimentin, villin, claudin-4, and CDX2) in primary gallbladder adenocarcinomas from 180 Chilean patients and analyzed potential associations with their pathological and clinical characteristics. Younger female patients with well-to moderately differentiated tumors had a better prognosis than that of older female or male patients with tumors with a similar tumor differentiation grade. Among all analyzed markers, MUC6 expression was associated with better prognosis in patients with well-to moderately differentiated tumors, whereas CK17 or CD10 was associated with worse prognosis in patients with poorly differentiated tumors. In addition, the MUC6(+)CK17(-) expression pattern was strongly associated with better prognosis in patients with well- to moderately differentiated tumors, whereas patients with poorly differentiated tumors and with the CK17(+)CD10(+) expression pattern showed worse prognosis. Our results suggest that tumor MUC6, CK17, and CD10 can be considered as potential prognosis markers for GBC.