title: Immunohistochemical study on endocrine-like tumor cells in colorectal carcinomas.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the clinical significance of endocrine-like tumor cells in human colorectal carcinomas.
  
  
  METHODS
  The immunohistochemistry method (ABC) using a rabbit polyclonal antibody against human chromogranin A (CGA) was employed to determine changes in endocrine-like tumor cells from the surgically resected colorectal carcinoma tissues of patients (35 males and 27 females, aged from 19 to 78 years, with a mean age of 50.3 years). Of the 62 specimens, 44 were from rectal carcinomas, 18 from colonic carcinomas, 14 from lymph nodes and 48 from non-involvement. Dukes classification revealed 19 of the cases were in stage A, 29 cases were in stage B and 14 cases were in stage C. All of the specimens were fixed with 10% formalin, embedded with paraffin and cut into 5 μm sections. Additionally, the correlations among CGA-positive tumor cells, as well as the clinicopathologic data, age and sex of the patients, were also investigated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CGA-positive tumor cells were found in 35.5% of the patients with colorectal cancers, representing 20.0% (5 of 25) and 45.9% (17 of 37) of the aged and non-aged, respectively. These differences were significant (χ(2) test, P < 0.05). Nevertheless, no significant correlations were found between the CGA-positive tumor cells and the sex, Dukes stages, tumor location, degree of histological differentiation or presence of lymph node metastasis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The low incidence of endocrine-like tumor cells found in the aged patients may be a new pathological feature for colorectal carcinomas, which could explain why the aged patients usually had a better prognosis. The exact significance of these findings requires further characterization.
authors.affiliation: Dao-Cun Wang, Li-Dong Wang, Yun-Ying Jia, Yi-Qing Liu, Chang-Wei Feng, Fu-Ai Tang, Qi-Zhou, Zhen-Feng Li, Guang-Lin Cui, Department of Gastroenterology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Henan Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Dao-Cun Wang, Li-Dong Wang, Yun-Ying Jia, Yi-Qing Liu, Chang-Wei Feng, Fu-Ai Tang, Qi-Zhou, Zhen-Feng Li, Guang-Lin Cui, Department of Gastroenterology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Henan Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Dao-Cun Wang, Li-Dong Wang, Yun-Ying Jia, Yi-Qing Liu, Chang-Wei Feng, Fu-Ai Tang, Qi-Zhou, Zhen-Feng Li, Guang-Lin Cui, Department of Gastroenterology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Henan Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Y Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Dao-Cun Wang, Li-Dong Wang, Yun-Ying Jia, Yi-Qing Liu, Chang-Wei Feng, Fu-Ai Tang, Qi-Zhou, Zhen-Feng Li, Guang-Lin Cui, Department of Gastroenterology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Henan Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Y Q
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Dao-Cun Wang, Li-Dong Wang, Yun-Ying Jia, Yi-Qing Liu, Chang-Wei Feng, Fu-Ai Tang, Qi-Zhou, Zhen-Feng Li, Guang-Lin Cui, Department of Gastroenterology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Henan Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Dao-Cun Wang, Li-Dong Wang, Yun-Ying Jia, Yi-Qing Liu, Chang-Wei Feng, Fu-Ai Tang, Qi-Zhou, Zhen-Feng Li, Guang-Lin Cui, Department of Gastroenterology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Henan Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Dao-Cun Wang, Li-Dong Wang, Yun-Ying Jia, Yi-Qing Liu, Chang-Wei Feng, Fu-Ai Tang, Qi-Zhou, Zhen-Feng Li, Guang-Lin Cui, Department of Gastroenterology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Henan Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China.
authors.lastname: Qi-Zhou
authors.affiliation: Dao-Cun Wang, Li-Dong Wang, Yun-Ying Jia, Yi-Qing Liu, Chang-Wei Feng, Fu-Ai Tang, Qi-Zhou, Zhen-Feng Li, Guang-Lin Cui, Department of Gastroenterology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Henan Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: Z F
authors.initials: ZF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Dao-Cun Wang, Li-Dong Wang, Yun-Ying Jia, Yi-Qing Liu, Chang-Wei Feng, Fu-Ai Tang, Qi-Zhou, Zhen-Feng Li, Guang-Lin Cui, Department of Gastroenterology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, Henan Medical University, Zhengzhou 450003, Henan Province, China.
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Cui
keywords: Chromogranin A; Colorectal neoplasms/pathology; Immunohistochemistry