High Expression of FAM83B Predicts Poor Prognosis in Patients with Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma and Correlates with Cell Cycle and Cell Proliferation

FAM83B (family with sequence similarity 83, member B) seems to emerge as a new class of players involved in the development of a variety of malignant tumors. Yet the molecular mechanisms are not well understood. The present study is intended to investigate the expression and function of FAM83B in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). In this study, we found that the expression of FAM83B was significantly increased both in PDAC cell lines and PDAC tumor tissues. FAM83B expression was positively related with advanced clinical stage and poor vital status. Higher FAM83B expression predicted shorter overall survival in PDAC patients, regardless of lymphatic metastasis status and histological differentiation. Actually, FAM83B may act as an independent prognostic indicator as well. What's more, down-regulation of FAM83B in PDAC cells contributed to G0/G1 phase arrest and inhibition of cell proliferation. Finally, a subcutaneous xenograft model indicated that knockdown of FAM83B significantly reduced the tumor volume in vivo. Our findings have provided supporting evidence for the potential molecular biomarker role of FAM83B in PDAC. It's of great interest and broad significance to target FAM83B in PDAC, which may conduce to develop a meaningful and effective strategy in the diagnosis and treatment of PDAC.