Indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase and B7-H1 expressions as prognostic and follow-up markers in human pancreatic carcinoma

Abstract This study was to test hypotheses that indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase and B7-H1 expressions can be used as prognostic markers in human pancreatic carcinoma (PC). Ninety-five patients were recruited who had undergone radical surgical resection for PC. IDO and B7-H1 expressions in PC tissue specimens were evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) techniques. The clinical and pathological features of these specimens were analyzed. IDO positive, B7-H1 positive, and combined IDO/B7-H1 positive tumors exhibited significant correlations with lymphocytic infiltration, perineural invasion, TNM status, and pathologic grade ( p   .05), which tended to show strong correlations with malignant progression of PC. Also, IDO correlated with diabetes mellitus (DM) and HAD scale and B7-H1 correlated with smoke ( p   .05). In addition, the correlation analysis indicated that IDO had a positive correlation with B7-H1 ( p   .05). Moreover, the results showed that a combination of IDO and B7-H1 expressions could serve as independent prognostic marker after adjusting by Cox proportional hazards regression models ( p   .05). IDO and B7-H1 expressions were observed in patient with PC tissues and are important markers for PC malignant progression. A combination of IDO and B7-H1 expression can be served as an independent prognostic marker for PC.