The clinicopathological and biological characteristics of squamous cell/adenosquamous carcinoma (SC/ASC) of gallbladder have not been well documented because it is a rare subtype of gallbladder cancer. In this study, the protein expression of Nectin-2 and DDX3 in 46 SC/ASCs and 80 adenocarcinomas was measured using immunohistochemistry. We demonstrated that positive Nectin-2 and DDX3 expression was significantly associated with large tumor size, high TNM stage, and lymph node metastasis of SC/ASC and AC. Positive Nectin-2 and DDX3 expression was significantly associated with invasion and surgical curability of AC. Univariate Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that positive Nectin-2 and DDX3 expression, degree of differentiation, tumor size, TNM stage, invasion, lymph node metastasis, and surgical curability were significantly associated with post-operative survival in both SC/ASC and AC patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that positive Nectin-2 and DDX3 expression, degree of differentiation, tumor size, TNM stage, invasion, lymph node metastasis, and no surgical curability are independent poor-prognostic factors in both SC/ASC and AC patients. Our study suggested that positive Nectin-2 and DDx3 expression is closely correlated with clinical, pathological, and biological behaviors as well as poor-prognosis of gallbladder cancer.
Keywords: DDX3; Gallbladder cancer; Nectin-2; adenocarcinoma; adenosquamous carcinoma; metastasis; prognosis; squamous cell carcinoma.