MTA2 expression is a novel prognostic marker for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

The aim of this study was to detect MTA2 expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) and to analyze its association with prognosis of PDA patients. MTA2 mRNA and protein expression were determined by real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry in specimens of primary cancer and their adjacent noncancerous tissues in PDA patients. We found that MTA2 mRNA and protein expression levels were both significantly upregulated in PDA lesions compared with adjacent noncancerous tissues. Immunohistochemistry showed that high MTA2 expression was correlated with poor tumor differentiation, TNM stage, and lymph node metastasis. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that patients with high expression levels of MTA2 showed lower overall survival rate than those with low expression levels. Multivariate analysis showed that high MTA2 protein expression was an independent prognostic factor for PDA patients. Our study suggests that overexpression of MTA2 may play an important role in the progression of PDA and MTA2 expression may serve as a biomarker for poor prognosis for PDA.