The stem cell factor/c-kit receptor pathway enhances proliferation and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells

Table 1 Clinical and pathological characteristics of patients according to the expression of KIT.

		KIT expression (overall n = 42)
		KIT positive (n = 16)	KIT negative (n = 26)	p-value
Gender	Male/Female	10/6	18/8	NS
Age (year)		64.5 ± 7.2	66.3 ± 10.8	NS
TNM stage	I/II/III/IV/unclear	2/3/8/3/0	5/4/12/4/1	NS
Tumor location	Head/Body, Tail	10/6	22/4	NS
Cancer cell differentiation	W/Mo/P/Mu	3/11/1/1	11/10/5/0	NS
SCF	Positive/Negative	14/2	10/16	0.002
Lymph node metastasis	Positive/Negative	14/2	21/5	NS
Intrapancreatic neural invasion	ne2, 3/ne0, 1	14/2	17/9	NS
Lymphatic system invasion	ly2, 3/ly0, 1	9/7	13/13	NS
Venous system invasion	v2, 3/v0, 1	10/6	8/18	0.046

NS = not significant. W = well differentiated adenocarcinoma; Mo = moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma; P = papillary adenocarcinoma; Mu = mucinous carcinoma. Values of age are given mean ± SD. The p-values were obtained using the Mann-Whitney U-test.

ISSN: 1476-4598