Research article
RON is not a prognostic marker for resectable pancreatic cancer
1 Cancer Research Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, 384 Victoria St, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia
2 Department of Surgery, Bankstown Hospital, Eldridge Road, Bankstown, Sydney, NSW 2200, Australia
3 South Western Sydney Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, University of NSW, Liverpool, NSW 2170, Australia
4 Department of Anatomical Pathology, Royal North Shore Hospital, St Leonards, Sydney, NSW 2065, Australia
5 Northern Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
6 Department of Anatomical Pathology, St. Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia
7 Queensland Centre for Medical Genomics, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia
8 Australian Pancreatic Cancer Genome Initiative Consortium, The Kinghorn Cancer Centre, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, 372 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia
BMC Cancer 2012, 12:395 doi:10.1186/1471-2407-12-395
Published: 7 September 2012Abstract
Background
The receptor tyrosine kinase RON exhibits increased expression during pancreatic cancer progression and promotes migration, invasion and gemcitabine resistance of pancreatic cancer cells in experimental models. However, the prognostic significance of RON expression in pancreatic cancer is unknown.
Methods
RON expression was characterized in several large cohorts, including a prospective study, totaling 492 pancreatic cancer patients and relationships with patient outcome and clinico-pathologic variables were assessed.
Results
RON expression was associated with outcome in a training set, but this was not recapitulated in the validation set, nor was there any association with therapeutic responsiveness in the validation set or the prospective study.
Conclusions
Although RON is implicated in pancreatic cancer progression in experimental models, and may constitute a therapeutic target, RON expression is not associated with prognosis or therapeutic responsiveness in resected pancreatic cancer.
