Localization of oncofetal and normal fibronectin in colorectal cancer. Correlation with histologic grade, liver metastasis, and prognosis.
BACKGROUND
Expression of oncofetal fibronectin (oncFN) and normal fibronectin (norFN) in colorectal cancer specimens was examined to investigate the correlation between fibronectin localization and histologic grade, liver metastasis, and prognosis.


METHODS
Immunohistochemical staining of oncFN and norFN was performed on 99 primary lesions and 12 liver metastases of colorectal cancer. The expression of norFN and oncFN was evaluated by grading the intensity of staining as negative, positive, or strongly positive.


RESULTS
Positive staining for oncFN correlated positively with increasing stage. The rate of strongly positive staining for oncFN was 53% for primary lesions with liver metastasis, significantly higher than the oncFN-positive rate of 13% for metastasis free cases (P < 0.05). Liver lesions had an oncFN-positive rate of 92%. The postoperative 5-year survival rate for 51 cases classified as Dukes Stage C was 77.8% for oncFN-negative cases, 36.5% for oncFN-positive cases, and 22.2% for oncFN-strongly positive cases; these rates were significantly different (P < 0.01). Conversely, there was no correlation between norFN and any clinical variable.


CONCLUSIONS
Expression of oncFN is correlated with a poor prognosis of Dukes C colorectal cancer and may serve as a useful postoperative prognostic sign.
Inufusa
H
H
First Department of the Surgery, Kinki University School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan.
Nakamura
M
M
Adachi
T
T
Nakatani
Y
Y
Shindo
K
K
Yasutomi
M
M
Matsuura
H
H
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D005353:Fibronectins / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000556:secondary*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D005353:Fibronectins; C031192:oncofetal antigens