Clinical Significance of MUC13 in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Background—Poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer (PanCa) is associated with lack of an effective early diagnostic biomarker. This study elucidates significance of MUC13, as a diagnostic/prognostic marker of PanCa. Methods—MUC13 was assessed in tissues using our in-house generated anti-MUC13 mouse monoclonal antibody and analyzed for clinical correlation by immunohistochemistry, immunoblotting, RT-PCR, computational and submicron scale mass-density fluctuation analyses, ROC and Kaplan Meir curve analyses. Results—MUC13 expression was detected in 100% pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN) lesions (Mean composite score: MCS=5.8; AUC \u3e0.8, P\u3c0.0001), 94.6% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) samples (MCS=9.7, P\u3c0.0001) as compared to low expression in tumor adjacent tissues (MCS=4, P\u3c0.001) along with faint or no expression in normal pancreatic tissues (MCS=0.8; AUC \u3e0.8; P\u3c0.0001). Nuclear MUC13 expression positively correlated with nodal metastasis (P\u3c0.05), invasion of cancer to peripheral tissues (P\u3c0.5) and poor patient survival (P\u3c0.05; prognostic AUC=0.9). Submicron scale mass density and artificial intelligence based algorithm analyses also elucidated association of MUC13 with greater morphological disorder (P\u3c0.001) and nuclear MUC13 as strong predictor for cancer aggressiveness and poor patient survival. Conclusion—This study provides significant information regarding MUC13 expression/ subcellular localization in PanCa samples and supporting the use anti-MUC13 MAb for the development of PanCa diagnostic/prognostic test