Erschienen in:
01.05.2014 | Research Article
Overexpression of nuclear β-catenin at invasive front in rectal carcinoma is associated with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis
verfasst von:
L. Wang, X. Zhang, Z. Li, J. Chai, G. Zhang, Z. Yu, Y. Cheng, S. Hu
Erschienen in:
Clinical and Translational Oncology
|
Ausgabe 5/2014
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Abstract
Background
This study aims to investigate whether nuclear β-catenin overexpression at invasive front in rectal carcinoma is associated with lymph node metastasis and prognosis.
Methods
Immunohistochemistry was adopted to detect the expression of β-catenin in rectal carcinoma and lymph node metastatic lesions. Spearman’s rank correlation analysis and Tukey’s test were used to evaluate the association between nuclear β-catenin expression at invasive front in rectal carcinoma and lymph node metastasis. Kaplan–Meier method and multivariate Cox regression model were used to evaluate the prognostic value of nuclear β-catenin overexpression at invasive front in rectal carcinoma for disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS).
Results
Overexpression of nuclear β-catenin at the invasive front in rectal carcinoma in stage III-N2 was significantly higher than that in stage III-N1 (73.4 vs. 40.4 %, P < 0.001). Nuclear β-catenin expression at the invasive front in rectal carcinoma was associated with the expression of nuclear β-catenin in corresponding lymph node metastatic lesions (r = 0.297, P < 0.001). Overexpression of nuclear β-catenin at the invasive front in rectal carcinoma was correlated with the number of metastatic lymph nodes (P < 0.001). Patients with nuclear β-catenin overexpression at the invasive front in rectal carcinoma had poor DFS (P = 0.002) and OS (P = 0.003). Moreover, overexpression of nuclear β-catenin at the invasive front was an independent prognosticator for unfavorable DFS and OS (P = 0.002 and 0.001).
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that overexpression of nuclear β-catenin at the invasive front in rectal carcinoma may be a useful marker to evaluate lymph node metastasis, as well as a promising predictor of poor prognosis.