Resumen
Cholangiocarcinoma is characterized by a very poor outcome and SerpinB3, a serine protease inhibitor, has recently been found to play a relevant role in malignant transformation in different cancers. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of this biomarker in the serum and surgical specimens of cholangiocarcinoma in relation to clinical outcome. High levels of SerpinB3/4 were detected in tumoral tissue in 12.2% of CCA, which were characterized by a more advanced TNM stage and lower overall patient survival, independently of CCA subclass. In addition, patients who had detectable free or IgM-linked SerpinB3/4 in serum showed poorer survival. In conclusion, the present study provides evidence that SerpinB3/4, both in the serum and in tumoral tissue, could be considered a useful biomarker to identify the small subgroup of CCA patients with more aggressive tumor biology and dismal prognosis.