Polymeric immunoglobulin receptor expression is predictive of poor prognosis in glioma patients.

Although there have been recent advances in surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the survival of patient with glioma remains poor. Increased expression of polymeric immunoglobulin receptor (pIgR) in tumor tissue has been detected in various cancer forms. However, the clinical relevance of pIgR in glioma remains unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of pIgR in patients with glioma after surgical resection. pIgR expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry in paraffin-embedded glioma tissues from 146 patients. The relation between pIgR expression and clinicopathologic factors and long-term prognosis in these 146 patients was retrospectively examined. The prognostic significance of negative or positive pIgR exspression in glioma was assessed using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis and log-rank tests. Positive expression of pIgR was statistically significantly associated with poor prognosis of patients with glioma. Our results indicated that pIgR could be a novel predictor for poor prognosis of patients with glioma after surgical resection.