title: Expression of NF-κB p65 phosphorylated at serine-536 in rectal cancer with or without preoperative radiotherapy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the present study, we investigated NF-κB p65 phosphorylated at Serine-536 (phosphor-Ser536-p65) in rectal cancer and its relationship to preoperative radiotherapy (RT), clinicopathological variables and biological factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Expression of phosphor-Ser536-p65 was examined by using immunohistochemistry in 141 primary rectal cancers, 149 normal mucosa specimens and 48 metastases in the lymph nodes, from rectal cancer patients who participated in a Swedish clinical trial of preoperative RT.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The expression of phosphor-Ser536-p65 in the cytoplasm increased from normal mucosa to primary tumour (p<0.0001, for both the group that did and the group that did not received RT). The expression did not further increase from primary tumour to metastasis in either group (p>0.05). Expression of phosphor-Ser536-p65 was positively related to, or tended to be related to, the expression of tumour endothelium marker 1 (TEM1, p=0.02), FXYD-3 (p=0.001), phosphatase of regenerating liver (PRL, p=0.02), p73 (p=0.048) and meningioma associated protein (MAC30, p=0.05) in the group that received RT but there were no such relationships in the group that did not received RT (p>0.05). The expression of phosphor-Ser536-p65 was not related to clinicopathological factors including survival (p>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The increased expression of phosphor-Ser536-p65 may be involved in rectal cancer development. After RT, phosphor-Ser536-p65 seems to be positively related to the biological factors, which associated with more malignant features of tumours. However, phosphor-Ser536-p65 was not directly related to the response of RT based on recurrence and survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Linköping, Linköping, Sweden.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lewander
authors.forename: Jinfang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Gunnar
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Adell
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiao-Feng
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Sun