Expression and clinical significance of glucose transporter-1 in pancreatic cancer

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Abstract
Increasing evidence has demonstrated that malignant cells exhibit increased glucose uptake, which facilitates survival and growth in a hypoxic environment. The glucose transporter-1 (GLUT-1) is overexpressed in a variety of malignant tumors. However, the association between GLUT‑1 expression and clinicopathological factors, 18F‑fluorodeoxyglucose uptake and tumor proliferation in pancreatic cancer has not been investigated to date. In the present study, the expression of GLUT‑1 in 53 pancreatic cancer tissues was analyzed, which revealed that GLUT-1 was overexpressed in pancreatic tissue and correlated with poor prognosis and clinicopathological characteristics, including increased tumor size, clinical stage and lymph node metastasis, maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) and Ki‑67 expression. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that a cut‑off SUVmax value of 4.830 was associated with optimal sensitivity (88%) and specificity (71.4%) for the detection of strong positive GLUT‑1 expression. In addition, as the expression of GLUT‑1 was found to correlate with Ki‑67 expression, GLUT‑1 may exhibit a significant effect on cell proliferation in pancreatic cancer. Overall, these findings indicate that GLUT‑1 may represent a prognostic indicator, and a potential therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer.

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