Caveolin-I overexpression is a favourable prognostic factor for patients with extrahepatic bile duct carcinoma.

Extrahepatic bile duct carcinoma (EBDC) is a malignancy well known for its poor prognosis. Some clinicopathological prognostic markers have been proposed, but genetic factors have not been well investigated. We have examined expression patterns of caveolin-I, which has been shown to function as a turnout suppressor in vitro, in EBDC using immunohistochemistry. Normal tissues adjacent to the turnout cells did not show immunoreactivity forcaveolin-I. A total of 22 of the 60-carcinoma tissue samples (36.7%) studied were positive for caveolin-I. Caveolin-I immunostaining negatively correlated with the patient's age and pathological factor (pT) in a statistically significant manner. Multivariate analysis using Cox's proportional hazards model identified caveolin-I expression as an independent positive prognostic factor. Thus, our study suggests that caveolin-I expression may be a useful prognostic marker for EBDC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]