Objective: To explore the expression of in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (EHCC) tissues and its influence on tumor invasion and metastasis. Materials and Methods: Paraffin embedding samples of cancer, para-cancer, lymph node metastatic and hepatic metastatic tissues from 79 patients undergoing EHCC resection were collected. Expression of was detected by immunohistochemistry and its relationship with clinical pathological characteristics and the prognosis of EHCC patients were analyzed. Results: showed negative staining in para-cancer tissues, but demonstrated a 51.9% (41/79) positive expression rate in extracellular matrix (ECM) or cytoplasm of EHCC tissues. In lymph node metastatic and distant metastatic nidi, expression of was significantly higher than in the primary nidi ( , P=0.0065; , P=0.0453). The expression was in obvious association with lymph node metastasis (P 0.05), whereas it was in marked connection with lymph node and distant metastasis (P 0.05). However, the median survival time and median recurrent period of patients with positive expression of in both cytoplasm and ECM of tumor cells, only in ECM and only in cytoplasm, were evidently lower than with negative expression of in RCM and cytoplasm (P and the tumor differentiation were independent risk factors influencing the prognosis of EHCC patients. Conclusions: Abnormal expression of may be closely associated with invasion and metastasis of tumor cells, and thus a potential molecular marker for prognosis of EHCC patients.
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