Published online Jul 15, 2003. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v9.i7.1482
Revised: November 4, 2002
Accepted: November 12, 2002
Published online: July 15, 2003
AIM: To study changes in characteristics of colorectal carcinoma during the metastatic process and to investigate the correlation between cell proliferation activity and metastatic ability of patients with Dukes’ stage C or D.
METHODS: Formalin fixed and paraffin embedded materials of primary tumors and corresponding lymph node metastases resected from 56 patients with Dukes' stage C or D of colorectal carcinoma were stained immunohistochemically with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and CD44 variant exon 6 (CD44v6).
RESULTS: Thirty-one of 56 patients (55.4%) expressed PCNA in the primary sites and 36 of 56 patients (64.3%) expressed PCNA in the metastatic lymph nodes. A significant relation in PCNA expression was observed between the primary site and the metastatic lymph node (0.010 < P < 0.025). Forty-one of 56 patients (73.2%) expressed CD44v6 in the primary site and 39 of 56 patients (69.6%) expressed CD44v6 in the metastatic lymph node. There was also an significant relationship of CD44v6 between the primary site and the metastatic lymph node (0.005 < P < 0.010). No difference was observed between expression of CD44v6 and PCNA in the primary site (0.250 < P < 0.500).
CONCLUSION: This study partially demonstrates that tumor cells in metastatic lymph node of colorectal carcinoma still possess cell proliferation activity and metastatic ability of tumor cells in primary site. There may be no association between cell proliferation activity and metastatic ability in colorectal carcinoma.