title: Lumican expression in advanced colorectal cancer with nodal metastasis correlates with poor prognosis.
abstract: Lumican is a member of a small leucine-rich proteoglycan family, and it is reportedly overexpressed in human breast cancer. The expression of lumican in the extracellular matrix in breast cancer is associated with a high tumor grade, low estrogen receptor levels and young age. Lumican expression has been previously reported in colorectal cancer, but the role of lumican in the tumor is not well understood. In this study, we examined the expression and role of lumican in advanced colorectal cancer. Immunohistochemical staining was performed on 158 patients who underwent curative surgery for advanced colorectal cancer with lymph node metastasis. In the normal colorectal tissues, lumican immunoreactivity was observed in the fibroblasts and neural cells, but not in the colorectal epithelial cells. Lumican was localized in the cytoplasm of the cancer cells and its overexpression was detected in 99 of the 158 (62.7%) colorectal cancer patients. Clinicopathologically, there was no association of lumican expression with age, sex, histological typing, or venous and lymphatic invasion. However, lumican expression tended to correlate with the spread of lymph node metastasis and the depth of tumor invasion (p=0.136 and 0.135, respectively). Furthermore, the survival rate was significantly lower in patients with a high lumican expression level than in those with a low lumican expression level (p=0.048). These results indicate that lumican expression is a potential prognostic factor in patients with advanced colorectal cancer with nodal metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Chiba Hokusoh Hospital, Nippon Medical School, Chiba 270-1694, Japan. seya@nms.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seya
authors.forename: Noritake
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Seiichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shinji
authors.forename: Kimiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yokoi
authors.forename: Michihiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koizumi
authors.forename: Nobuhisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Teranishi
authors.forename: Kiyohiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tajiri
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ishiwata
authors.forename: Zenya
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Naito
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D011508:Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycans / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007632:Keratan Sulfate / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D000071234:Lumican; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D011508:Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycans; C000604306:LUM protein, human; D000071234:Lumican; D007632:Keratan Sulfate