Prognostic and predictive significance of podocalyxin-like protein expression in pancreatic and periampullary adenocarcinoma.

Adenocarcinoma of the periampullary region is associated with poor prognosis and new prognostic and treatment predictive biomarkers are needed for improved treatment. Membranous expression of podocalyxin-like 1(PODXL), which is a cell-adhesion glycoprotein and stem cell marker, has been found to correlate with an aggressive tumour phenotype and adverse outcome in several cancer types. The aim of the present study was to examine the clinicopathological correlates, prognostic and predictive significance of tumour-specific PODXL expression in a retrospective cohort of pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma, morphologically divided into intestinal type (I-type) and pancreatobiliary type (PB-type) tumours.