Relationship between autophagy and perineural invasion, clinicopathological features, and prognosis in pancreatic cancer

Table 1 Relationship between microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3 expression and perineural invasion in pancreatic cancer

LC3	PNI		P value	r
	Absent	Present
Low expression	18	22	0.018	0.227
High expression	16	53

P < 0.05, PNI absent vs present. PNI: Perineural invasion

Table 2 Relationships of perineural invasion and microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3 expression with clinicopathological features

Parameter	n	PNI		P value	LC3		P value
		Absent	Present		Low expression	High expression
Age (yr)
≤ 58	54	19	35	0.373	23	31	0.206
> 58	55	15	40		17	38
Gender
Male	61	15	46	0.093	26	35	0.148
Female	48	19	29		14	34
Tumor location
Head	66	17	49	0.129	28	38	0.124
Body/tail	43	17	26		12	31
Tumor size (cm)
≤ 2	18	6	12	0.83	8	10	0.455
> 2	91	28	63		32	59
Histologic grade
Well or moderate	74	24	50	0.685	23	51	0.077
Poor	35	10	25		17	18
Vascular invasion
Negative	83	26	57	0.957	31	52	0.801
Positive	26	8	18		9	17
Lymph node metastasis
Negative	36	17	19	0.011a	18	18	0.043a
Positive	73	17	56		22	51
AJCC stage
I + II	69	22	47	0.838	25	44	0.895
III + IV	40	12	28		15	25
Pancreatitis
Negative	30	15	15	0.009a	12	18	0.659
Positive	79	19	60		28	51
Diabetes
Negative	89	27	62	0.684	33	56	0.862
Positive	20	7	13		7	13
CA19-9 level (U/mL)
≤ 37	37	19	19	0.001a	13	24	0.808
> 37	72	15	57		27	45

^aP < 0.05, LC3 low expression vs high expression; PNI absent vs present. LC3: Microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3; PNI: Perineural invasion.

Table 3 Multivariate logistic regression analysis of perineural invasion with clinicopathological features in pancreatic cancer

Parameter	Estimate, B	Standard error	Wald statistic	P value	Odds ratio	95%CI
Lymph node metastasis (positive vs negative)	1.068	0.499	4.581	0.032a	2.911	1.094-7.743
CA199 (> 37 U/mL vs ≤ 37 U/mL)	1.508	0.493	9.368	0.002a	4.520	1.720-11.874
Pancreatitis (present vs absent)	1.301	0.514	6.419	0.011a	3.673	1.343-10.049
LC3 (high vs low)	1.032	0.491	4.406	0.036a	2.806	1.071-7.351
Constant	-7.209	1.799	16.058	0	0.001

^aP < 0.05. CI: Confidence interval; LC3: Microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3; PNI: Perineural invasion.

Table 4 Multivariate logistic regression analysis of microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3 expression with clinicopathological features in pancreatic cancer

Parameter	Estimate, B	Standard error	Wald statistic	P value	Odds ratio	95%CI
PNI (present vs absent)	0.997	0.427	5.451	0.02a	2.71	1.174-6.259
Constant	-1.115	0.732	2.316	0.128	0.328

^aP < 0.05. PNI: Perineural invasion.

Table 5 Univariate analysis of survival in patients who underwent radical surgery

Parameter	Hazard ratio	95%CI	P value
PNI (present vs absent)	3.701	1.539-8.903	0.003a
LC3 (high vs low)	3.196	1.433-7.126	0.005a
Sex (male vs female)	1.154	0.590-2.260	0.676
Age (> 58 yr vs ≤ 58 yr)	1.176	0.621-2.225	0.619
Tumor location (body/tail vs head)	1.102	0.570-2.131	0.773
Histologic grade (poorly vs well or moderate)	1.287	0.636-2.604	0.484
Tumor size (> 2 cm vs ≤ 2 cm)	0.940	0.444-1.991	0.871
Vascular invasion (positive vs negative)	1.821	0.883-3.755	0.105
Lymph node metastasis (positive vs negative)	0.871	0.449-1.688	0.682
AJCC stage (III + IV vs I + II)	1.473	0.752-2.889	0.259
Diabetes (present vs absent)	1.105	0.522-2.337	0.795
Pancreatitis (present vs absent)	1.075	0.520-2.222	0.845
CA19-9 level (> 37 U/mL vs ≤ 37 U/mL)	2.648	1.286-5.454	0.008a

^aP < 0.05. LC3: Microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3; PNI: Perineural invasion.

Table 6 Multivariable analysis of survival in patients who underwent radical surgery

Parameter	Hazard ratio	95%CI	P value
PNI (present vs absent)	2.962	1.212-7.238	0.017a
LC3 (high vs low)	2.491	1.107-5.608	0.027a

^aP < 0.05. LC3: Microtubule-associated protein 1A/1B-light chain 3; PNI: Perineural invasion.