Clinicopathological significance of Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression in human pancreatic cancer

AIM: To assess the clinicopathological significance of the expression of the apoptosis-inhibitory Bcl-2 protein(pBcl-2) and the apoptosis-promoting Bax protein (pBax)in human invasive ductal carcinomas (IDCs) of the pancreas.METHODS: Fifty-nine surgical specimens of IDCs of the pancreas were stained immunohistochemically to detect pBcl-2 and pBax expressions whose correlation to tumor classification, staging, and prognosis was analyzed by univariate and multivariate analyses.RESULTS: The expression of pBcl-2 and pBax was detected in 21 of 59 (35.6%) and in 29 of 59 (49.2%)patients with IDCs of the pancreas, respectively. Neither pBcl-2 nor pBax alone was correlated to TNM staging and differentiation degree of IDCs of the pancreas according to univariate analysis. By Mantel-Cox test, the mediansurvival time after surgery for pBcl-2(+) and pBcl-2(-)groups were 14.3 and 7.3 too, respectively (X^2 = 9.357,P = 0.002) and that for pBax(+) and pBax(-) groups were 12.9 and 10.2 too, respectively X^2= 0.285, P>0.05).Contingency coefficient between pBcl-2 and pBax expression was 0.298, indicating that there was correlation between them (X^2 = 5.74, P