Overexpression of CO-029 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is associated with poor prognosis

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a high lethal disease with a poor prognosis. Identifying prognostic markers that promote progression of PDAC is important for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. CO-029 appears to be involved in multiple processes during tumor development and metastasis. Its activity is increased in malignant cells compared to noncancerous cells. However, the clinical and significance of CO-029 expression has not been characterized previously in PDAC. The aim of this study was to investigate the CO-029 expression and to explore its contribution to PDAC. The mRNA and protein expression levels of CO-029 in 80 cases of PDAC tissues were determined using qualitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry staining, respectively, and the relationship between the CO-029 expression level and clinicopathological parameters was analyzed in 80 cases of PDAC. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression analysis were used to investigate the correlation between CO-029 expression and prognosis of PDAC patients. CO-029 expression was significantly higher in PDAC tissues compared to normal tissues (P < 0.001). In univariate analysis, CO-029 was found to be associated with lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001). Kaplan-Meier analysis and COX regression analysis showed that CO-029 was significantly correlated with poor survival in PDAC patients (P < 0.001). Furthermore, Cox regression analyses showed that CO-029 expression was an independent predictor of overall survival. Taken together, our study reveals that high CO-029 expression and its association with lymph node metastasis in PDAC. It also provided the first evidence that CO-029 expression in PDAC was an independent prognostic factor of patients, which might be a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target of PDAC.