title: Prognostic implication of 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase down-regulation in patients with colorectal cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Prostaglandin (PG) E2 is known to be closely related to cancer progression and is inactivated by 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase (PGDH). 15-PGDH is shown to have tumor suppressor activity and to be down-regulated in various cancers, including colorectal cancer (CRC). Therefore, we evaluated the expression of 15-PGDH and its prognostic effect in patients with CRC.
  
  
  METHODS
  15-PGDH expression was examined by using immunohistochemistry in 77 patients with CRC. Its prognostic significance was statistically evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Negative 15-PGDH expression was noted in 55.8% of the 77 cases of CRC. 15-PGDH expression showed no correlation with any of the various clinicopathologic parameters. The status of lymph node metastasis, tumor-node-metastasis stages, and pre-operative carcinoembryonic antigen levels showed significant prognostic effect. However, univariate analysis revealed down-regulation of 15-PGDH not to be a predictor of poor survival. The 5-year overall survival rate was 71.7% in the group with positive expression of 15-PGDH and 67.1% in the group with negative expression of 15-PGDH, but this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.751).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  15-PGDH was down-regulated in 55.8% of the colorectal cancer patients. However, down-regulation of 15-PGDH showed no prognostic value in patients with CRC. Further larger scale or prospective studies are needed to clarify the prognostic effect of 15-PGDH down-regulation in patients with colorectal cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Chosun University School of Medicine, Gwangju, Korea.
authors.forename: Pil Sung
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Jin Ha
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Ok In
authors.initials: OI
authors.lastname: Moon
authors.forename: Sung Chul
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Kyung Jong
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Kim