O11 Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM/CD166) is an important clinical and prognostic indicator in pancreatic cancer

Activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM/CD166) is a cell adhesion molecule and one of the potential metastasis ‘soil’ receptors that via homotypic and heterotypic interactions, mediates cell adhesion. The present study investigated the clinical, pathological and prognostic value of ALCAM in patients with pancreatic cancer. Method Pancreatic cancer tissues (n = 223), collected immediately after surgery, were analysed for levels of the ALCAM transcripts. The expression was analysed against clinical, pathological and clinical outcome of the patients. We validated our findings with an available TCGA database (n = 117), including correlations with the ALCAM interactive partners. Result Pancreatic cancer tissues had significantly higher levels of ALCAM transcript than normal tissues (P < 0.00001). There were no significant differences with staging, differentiation and tumour locations. Tumours from patients who died of pancreatic cancer had significantly high levels of ALCAM compared with those who lived (P = 0.018), finding also supported by ROC analysis (P = 0.016). Multivariant analysis showed ALCAM as an independent prognosis factor for overall survival (hazardous ratio 5.485), with both nodal status and TNM staging contributing to the model (HR 2.578 and 3.02 respectively). A surprising finding was the relationship between ALCAM expression and microvessel embolism of tumour cells (P = 0.021, with vs without tumour embolism). ALCAM significantly correlated with its interactive protein partners including CD6 and ITGB1, but not L1CAM. Conclusion ALCAM/CD166 expression is aberrant in pancreatic cancer and the raised expression is an independent prognostic factor for the survival of the patients and the microvessel embolism by cancer cells. Take-home Message ALCAM is a prognostic indicator for survival and tumour embolism in pancreatic cancer