Clusterin expression is associated with decreased disease-free survival of patients with colorectal carcinomas.
OBJECTIVE
It has been demonstrated that increased clusterin expression is involved in malignant progression and that anticlusterin treatment leads to selective apoptosis. The aim of this study was to determine the clinicopathological significance of clusterin expression in human colorectal carcinomas.


RESULTS
The expression of clusterin was examined in 31 adenomas and 103 colorectal carcinomas. Normal epithelial cells were always negative for clusterin expression, but clusterin expression was present in 16% (5/31) of adenomas and this percentage increased in colorectal carcinomas (30%, 31/103). Immunopositivity always presented an apical cytoplasmic pattern. The expression level of clusterin did not correlate with age, gender, grade or stage. However, its expression was significantly associated with a decrease in disease-free survival (P < 0.05). In a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model, clusterin expression remained a significant independent predictor.


CONCLUSIONS
Clusterin expression may have a role in colonic carcinogenesis and may help identify patients with more aggressive tumours who may benefit from targeted therapy.
Redondo
Maximino
M
Department of Biochemistry, Hospital Costa del Sol, CIBER Epidemiología y Salud Pública, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain. mredondo@hcs.es
Rodrigo
Isabel
I
Alcaide
Julia
J
Tellez
Teresa
T
Roldan
María J
MJ
Funez
Rafael
R
Diaz-Martin
Aurelio
A
Rueda
Antonio
A
Jiménez
Eugenio
E
D000236:Adenoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D051152:Clusterin / Q000378:metabolism*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
D051152:Clusterin