The expression of Nek7, FoxM1, and Plk1 in gallbladder cancer and their relationships to clinicopathologic features and survival

Gallbladder carcinoma (GC) is generally considered as a relatively rare malignancy with poor prognosis. In order to guide clinicians in selecting suitable treatment for GC patients, reliable markers predictive of poor clinical outcome are desirable. This study analyzed the expression of Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1), Nima related kinases 7 (Nek7) and Forkhead box M1 (FoxM1) in GC tissues and their relationship to clinicopathologic features and survival. We immunohistochemically investigated the 76 specimens of gallbladder carcinoma, pericarcinoma and normal tissues using Nek7, FoxM1 and Plk1 antibodies and analyzed the overall survival time of these 76 patients. There were significant correlations between the high level expression of Nek7, FoxM1 and Plk1 and the tumor differentiation, Nevin staging and metastasis. The high level expression of Nek7, FoxM1 and Plk1 was significantly associated with shorter overall survival time in univariate analysis (log-rank test), also identified as an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis. Nek7, FoxM1 and Plk1 were significantly associated with certain clinicopathologic indices in GC. Evaluation of Nek7, FoxM1 and Plk1 expression may be an important factor in identifying a group of poor GC prognosis.