Expression and clinical significance of Akt and phosphoryled Akt1 in pancreatic carcinoma

Objective To investigate the expression of Akt and phosphoryled Akt (p-Akt1) protein in pancreatic carcinoma and to determine the clinical significance. Methods In 74 cases of pancreatic carcinoma and 10 cases of normal pancreatic tissue samples, the expression of Akt and p-Akt1 were detected by immunohistochemical method, and the its relationship with clinicopathologic characteristics and prognosis were analyzed. Results The positive expression rate of Akt and p-Akt1 in pancreatic carcinoma were 87.8% and 83.8% respectively, while there was no expression of Akt and p-Akt1 in normal pancreatic tissue, and the difference was statistically significant (p 0.05). But the higher expression of p-Akt1 was associated with T stages and TNM staging (p =0. 002). Patients with high intensity of Akt and p-Akt1 expression showed a significantly longer median survival time [(16.0 ± 5.7) month and (23.0 ± 5.5) month, respectively]than those with low intensity expression [(9.3 ± 0.2) month and (11.1 ± 1.8) month (P = 0. 007 and P = 0.004) respectively]. Conclusions p-Akt1 expression is a significant positive prognostic factor for pancreaticcarcinoma and detection of p-Akt1 expression may be of clinical value. Key words: Pancreatic neoplasms; Immunohistochemistry; Protein kinases; Akt; p-Akt1; Prognosis