We previously showed that B cell receptor associated protein 31(BAP31) was significantly upregulated in colorectal cancer compared with normal mucosa epithelia. However, its expression pattern and pathological role in colorectal cancer are not clearly understood. In this study, we investigated whether the expression of BAP31 was associated with the clinicopathological parameters of colorectal cancer. The expression pattern of BAP31 was detected by immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray in both primary tumor and paired distant normal mucosa samples from 120 consecutive colorectal cancer patients. Furthermore, BAP31 protein expression was also determined in twenty colorectal adenomas and eight liver metastasis samples. There was positive expression of BAP31 in 64.17% of primary tumors and 6.67% in distant normal mucosa (P=0.000). Negative expression of BAP31 was correlated with distant metastasis (P=0.036) and lower tumor differentiation grade (P=0.001). Patients with BAP31-negative expression showed significantly lower overall survival rate (P=0.003) compared to patients with BAP31-positive expression. Our results demonstrate that BAP31 may serve as a candidate prognostic marker in colorectal cancer and negative BAP31 expression may lead to more aggressive invasion of colorectal cancer.
DONG LingYi JIANG KeWei ZHANG YanBin ZHANG Hui ZHUO HongQing CUI ZhiRong YE YingJiang WANG Shan
N-cadherin is related to the progression and metastases of several solid carcinomas.However,it was still unclear whether N-cadherin is overexpressed in colorectal malignant tumors that have stronger malignant tendency.In this study,we used immunohistochemistry to detect the expression patterns of N-cadherin in both the primary tumors and their normal mucosa tissues of 120patients with colorectal cancer.We revealed that N-cadherin was expressed in 78.3%(94/120)of colorectal tumor tissues and in only 9.2%(11/120)of paired distant normal mucosa tissues with a significant difference(P=0.000).The low,moderate,and high expression of N-cadherin protein was 42.5%,30.8%,and 26.7%,respectively.N-cadherin overexpression was associated with advanced TNM stage,lymph nodes metastasis and distant metastasis(P<0.05).Patients with N-cadherin overexpressed showed the obvious lower overall survival rate than those with moderate and low expression,and patients with low expression had a better survival rate than those with moderate and high expression(P<0.05).In conclusion,high N-cadherin expression may lead to tumor aggressiveness and metastatic potential in colorectal cancer,and may prove to be a possible prognostic factor.
