Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Aug 15, 2016; 8(8): 615-622
Published online Aug 15, 2016. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i8.615
Immunohistochemical analysis of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms
Vivian Weiss, Julie Dueber, Jesse P Wright, Justin Cates, Frank Revetta, Alexander A Parikh, Nipun B Merchant, Chanjuan Shi
Vivian Weiss, Julie Dueber, Justin Cates, Frank Revetta, Chanjuan Shi, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, United States
Jesse P Wright, Alexander A Parikh, Department of Surgery, Surgical Oncology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, United States
Nipun B Merchant, Department of Surgery, Surgical Oncology, University of Miami Hospital, Miami, FL 33165, United States
Author contributions: Weiss V and Dueber J collected the pathologic data and wrote the manuscript; Wright JP analyzed Ki67 and collected the clinical data; Cates J performed statistical analysis and edited the manuscript; Revetta F performed immunohistochemistry; Parikh AA, Merchant NB and Shi C designed the study and edited the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Vanderbilt Institutional Review Board.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: Not applicable.
Conflict-of-interest statement: To the best of our knowledge, no conflict of interest exists.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix is available from the corresponding author at chanjuan.shi@vanderbilt.edu. No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Chanjuan Shi, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Medical Center North C-2310D, 1121 21st Ave. S, Nashville, TN 37232, United States. chanjuan.shi@vanderbilt.edu
Telephone: +1-615-9368342 Fax: +1-615-3437023
Received: March 28, 2016
Peer-review started: March 28, 2016
First decision: May 16, 2016
Revised: May 24, 2016
Accepted: June 1, 2016
Article in press: June 3, 2016
Published online: August 15, 2016
Processing time: 134 Days and 5.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Dysregulation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway is present in some pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (PanNENs). However, compared to other malignancies, this signaling pathway may have different functions in PanNENs as strong membranous β-catenin expression is more frequently present in stage III/IV tumors and membranous expression of β-catenin and E-cadherin does not have a prognostic importance in this setting. Additionally, PanNENs arising in patients with familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) demonstrate abnormal nuclear β-catenin accumulation, and PanNENs may be one of the extraintestinal manifestations of FAP.