A new cell proliferating marker: cytosolic thymidine kinase as compared to proliferating cell nuclear antigen in patients with colorectal carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
Proliferation markers are necessary for reliable diagnosis. Here we have presented for the first time thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) as a proliferative tumor marker for colorectal carcinoma.


METHODS
Expression of TK1 in 54 colorectal lesions and 20 colorectal adenoma lesions was detected by immunohistochemistry technique (ABC). Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) was run in parallel.


RESULTS
TK1-Labelling Index (LI) (65%) was higher than PCNA-LI (52%) in the malignant lesions, although not significantly different (p = 0.1717) between them. TK1-LI as well as PCNA-LI showed significant differences between colorectal carcinoma and colorectal adenoma (TK1 p = 0.0005, PCNA p = 0.0005). Both TK1-LI and PCNA were significantly different in respect to tumor stages (TK1 p = 0.0002, PCNA p = 0.0284). However, only TK1-LI showed significant difference in respect to tumor grades (p = 0.014), but not PCNA-LI (p = 0.132).


CONCLUSIONS
TK1-LI showed more potential as a proliferating marker in colorectal carcinoma than PCNA-LI, especially for evaluating high-risk tumor grade and advanced stage in colorectal carcinoma.
Wu
J
J
Department of Pathology, Hubei Cancer Hospital, China.
Mao
Y
Y
He
L
L
Wang
N
N
Wu
C
C
He
Q
Q
Skog
S
S
D000231:Adenocarcinoma, Papillary / Q000473:pathology*; D000236:Adenoma / Q000473:pathology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000473:pathology*; D018279:Carcinoma, Signet Ring Cell / Q000473:pathology*; D002455:Cell Division; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen / Q000032:analysis*; D012016:Reference Values; D013937:Thymidine Kinase / Q000032:analysis*
D015415:Biomarkers; D018809:Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen; D013937:Thymidine Kinase