Down-expression of CD36 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and its correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis

Recent studies show that CD36 plays a key role in the occurrence and development of tumors, especially in the metastasis of tumors. However, the expression and role of CD36 has not been reported in pancreatic cancer. This study is aimed to explore the expression of CD36 in pancreatic cancer and corresponding non-tumor normal tissues, and its correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients. By analyzing the chip results of database GSE16515, we found that there was significant differential expression of CD36 in pancreatic cancer and corresponding non-tumor normal tissues. In this study, western blot and immunohistochemistry were used to show that the expression of CD36 in pancreatic cancer cells and tissues is significantly lower than that in corresponding non-tumor normal tissues. By statistically analyzing clinical and pathological data, we found that low expression of CD36 predicts lower TNM staging and CA19-9 levels, but larger tumor size and poor survival prognosis. These findings indicated that CD36 can be used as a predictor of clinicopathological features and prognosis, but the contradiction is worthy of our further study.