Differenzial Smad expression contributes to severity of cholangiocarcinoma

Background and aims: Incidence of cholangiocarcinoma (CC) rises in Western countries. TGF-β plays a dual role in the progression of human cancer and has been implicated in CC. It has been shown that Smad2 and Smad3, two canonical downstream signaling proteins of TGF-β, exert different roles in cancer. In the present study, we investigated the role of Smad2 and Smad3 in CC. Methods: Immunohistochemical staining for TGF-β1 and phospho-Smad2/3 was performed in 27 paraffin-embedded CC specimens paired with adjacent non-cancerous tissue. The correlation between TGF-β1/Smad immunohistochemical score and characteristic…