CCL18 as an independent favorable prognostic biomarker in patients with colorectal cancer

Abstract

BackgroundCCL18 has been shown to have an important role in the progression of gastric and breast cancers. However, the prognostic value of CCL18 in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unknown. Materials and methodsWe used immunohistochemistry to examine the expression of CCL18 in CRC patients. We applied both univariate and multivariate analysis to evaluate the prognostic value of CCL18 on CRC patients' survival. We used double staining to investigate the relationship between CCL18 and macrophages. ResultsA total 371 CRC patient samples were enrolled in immunohistochemical analysis. According to our criteria, 118 samples (31.8%) showed a high CCL18 expression level. Clinicopathologic analysis revealed an association between the expression level of CCL18 and the preoperative carcino embryonic antigen level (P = 0.001), and the preoperative carbohydrate antigen 19-9 level (P = 0.003). Survival analysis and multivariate analysis revealed that CCL18 was an independent favorable prognostic factor in patients with CRC (P = 0.033). Double staining implied that CCL18 was expressed by macrophages. ConclusionsA high CCL18 level might be an independent biomarker for predicting better survival of patients with CRC.