eEF1A2 Protein Expression Correlates with Lymph Node Metastasis and Decreased Survival in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Background/Aims: To examine eukaryotic elongation factor1A2 (eEF1A2) expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) and to analyze its relationship with the clinicopathology of PDA. Methodology: eEF1A2 expression was examined in 97 FDA specimens by immunohistochemistry. We also analyzed the association between eEF1A2 expression in PDAC cells and the clinicopathology of FDA patients. Results: eEF1A2 expression was absent in normal pancreatic tissue. In contrast, in PDA, eEF1A2 showed positive immunoreactivity in 76 of 97 (77.8%) FDA cases. We found significant associations between increased eEF1A2 expression and the presence of nodal metastasis (p=0.039) and perineural invasion (p=0.043). Univariate analysis of survival showed that the median overall survival time of eEF1A2-positive FDA patients (11.7 months) was significantly shorter than that of eEF1A2-negative PDAC patients (17.5 months; p<0.001). In addition, when the Cox proportion hazard model was used in multivariate survival analysis, we revealed that eEF1A2 expression (p<0.001; hazard rate, 95%CI 2.91-13.61) and TNM stage (p<0.001 hazard rate, 95%CI 0.18-0.23) still remained statistically significant. Conclusions: eEF1A2 is highly expressed in PDA, and its expression is associated with nodal metastasis and perineural invasion, as well as worse prognosis.