Maekawa Hiroshi, Ito Tomoaki, Tomoyuki Kushida, Orita Hajime, Mutsumi Sakurada, Sato Koichi, Wada Ryo
Objective: Here, we investigated whether FAS expression in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma is related to clinicopathological features. Methods: We studied 37 patients surgically treated for extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in our hospital. We compared FAS immunohistochemical staining with other pathological features, including Ki-67, p53 staining, and clinical findings using univariate analysis. Results: Of 37 cases, 20 cases were considered FAS-positive under our criteria. Pathologically, FAS positivity was not correlated with either Ki-67 positivity or p53 positivity (p: 0.1099, 0.0878). FAS expression was not related to differentiation of adenocarcinoma (p: 0.9350). However, a higher rate of FAS-positive cases was found in lymph node metastases (p: 0.0102). Clinically, FAS-positive cases showed earlier recurrence compared to FAS-negative cases (p: 0.0238); though there was no significant difference in overall survival rate between FAS-positive and FAS-negative cases (p: 0.1398). Conclusion: FAS expression may be related to lymph node metastasis and clinical behavior in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, and may be useful as a prognostic marker of this cancer.