The prognostic significance of E-cadherin and liver intestine-cadherin expression in colorectal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
The significance of liver intestine-cadherin as a potential marker has been growing in the field of oncology, because of its unique features compared with classic cadherins. We investigated the coexpression patterns of E-cadherin and liver intestine-cadherin in colorectal cancer, and determined whether differences in expression patterns were associated with clinicopathologic parameters and also which relationship between these two adhesion molecules existed in colorectal cancer.


METHODS
Expression pattern of E-cadherin and liver intestine-cadherin was investigated immunohistochemically in 207 colorectal cancers along with clinicopathologic parameters.


RESULTS
Reduced expression of liver intestine-cadherin was detected in 51 percent (n = 105) of tumors. Such expression was found to be associated with tumoral dedifferentiation (P = 0.015) and in a multivariate analysis was associated with a significant worse overall survival after adjustment for tumor stage, differentiation, and E-cadherin status (hazard ratio, 1.951; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.06-3.592; P = 0.032). Fifteen percent (n = 32) of tumors showed reduced expression of E-cadherin and had relationship with tumoral dedifferentiation (P < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.004), and advanced stage (P = 0.029). Reduced expression of E-cadherin was associated with short overall survival (P = 0.028); however, in a multivariate analysis, it was not statistically significant.


CONCLUSIONS
Reduced expression of liver intestine-cadherin had a significant correlation with tumoral dedifferentiation and short overall survival in this series. In addition, early and frequent loss of liver intestine-cadherin expression might be a more sensitive indicator than E-cadherin to predict more aggressive tumoral behavior.
Kwak
Jung-Myun
JM
Department of Surgery, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
Min
Byung-Wook
BW
Lee
Ju-Han
JH
Choi
Jong-Sang
JS
Lee
Sun-Il
SI
Park
Sung-Soo
SS
Kim
Jin
J
Um
Jun-Won
JW
Kim
Seon-Han
SH
Moon
Hong-Young
HY
D000368:Aged; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016019:Survival Analysis