Overexpression of LAPTM4B-35 closely correlated with clinicopathological features and post-resectional survival of gallbladder carcinoma

Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is a malignancy with dismal prognosis and unclear gene expression profile. We aimed to first present the expression of LAPTM4B-35, one product of a cancer associated gene recently cloned in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and its correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis of GBC. Immunohistochemical detection of LAPTM4B-35 was performed on samples from 75 patients with GBC. LAPTM4B-35 protein was overexpressed in 57 patients (76%) with GBC. The staining scores were significantly related to histology type, lymph node involvement, distant metastasis, Nevin staging and differentiation of GBC (P < 0.05). Univariate analysis revealed that overall or disease-free survival of patients was inversely associated with its staining scores (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that LAPTM4B-35 staining score was an independent prognostic marker for both overall and disease-free post-resectional survival of GBC (P = 0.004 and 0.027, respectively). LAPTM4B-35 overexpressed in a majority of GBCs and correlated with clinicopathological features and post-resectional survival.