title: Adenoma-carcinoma sequence: a reappraisal with immunohistochemical expression of ferritin.
abstract: To examine the biological significance of ferritin (FRN) expression, a retrospective immunohistochemical study was performed in normal colonic mucosae (n = 8), adenomas (n = 88), and colorectal carcinomas (n = 104). FRN was present in some epithelia in the crypt base of normal colonic mucosae. Significant cytoplasmic staining for FRN was revealed in 26 (29.5%) cases of adenoma and 54 cases (51.9%) of adenocarcinoma. The cancer cells had a higher proportion of FRN expression than those of adenomas or non-neoplastic mucosae (P < 0.001). Expression of FRN showed a positive association with the degree of dysplasia (P = 0.039) and the distal location of adenoma (P = 0.013). FRN expression tended to be associated with the tumor size (P = 0.083), but no substantial difference was observed among the histologic types of adenoma (P = 0.754). The results suggest that cytoplasmic FRN expression is associated with cellular proliferation. The proliferative index shows a significant difference through the adenoma-carcinoma sequence. Further investigation is necessary to clarify the clinical implication of FRN expression in tumor cells and normal-appearing mucosae.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China.
authors.forename: H B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: P I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: J C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: X Z
authors.initials: XZ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: N H
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Chow
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000236:Adenoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D002455:Cell Division; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016612:Paraffin Embedding; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013194:Staining and Labeling
chemical_list: D005293:Ferritins