Abstract
This study aimed to investigate whether immunohistochemical staining for nm23-H1 protein in the primary tumour is correlated with tumour stage, tumour differentiation, DNA ploidy, cell proliferative index, p53 status and patient survival time in colorectal cancer. Full-cross colorectal cancer biopsies were collected from 202 consecutive surgical specimens between 1987 and 1990. Immunohistochemical expression of nm23-H1 protein was investigated in cryosections, using a monoclonal anti-nm23-H1 antibody (clone NM 301). The staining pattern was classified as follows: strong homogeneous intensity, moderate homogeneous intensity, moderate focal intensity, or as negative. Immunohistochemical expression of p53 was investigated using a monoclonal anti-p53 antibody (DO-7). The DNA ploidy and cell proliferative index were determined by flow cytometry. Possible correlation between nm23-H1 staining patterns and the other studied tumour characteristics was explored at the end of 1994. Median survival time of living patients was 66 months, range 50-93 months. No correlation was found between various nm23-H1 staining patterns and tumour stage, cell proliferative index or p53 status. Nm23-H1-negative tumours and tumours with moderate focal staining intensity were less differentiated than tumours with strong homogeneous or moderate homogeneous staining intensity (P < 0.05). Of the nm23-H1-negative tumours, a significantly higher number was near-diploid rather than aneuploid, as compared with those expressing positive nm23-H1 (P < 0.05). The number of dead patients in Dukes' stages B and C did not correlate significantly with the nm23-H1 staining pattern. The nm23-H1 staining pattern alone, or combined with either of the other explored tumour characteristics, did not correlate with patient survival time. Immunohistochemical studies of the nm23-H1 protein expression are of minor value in the staging and prognostic prediction of colorectal cancer.
Highlights
Correspondence: G Lindmark, Department of Surgery, University Hospital, University of Umea, S-901 85 Umea, Sweden Received 17 November 1995; revised 8 May 1996; accepted 15 May 1996 gene have been shown in a number of primary tumours, such as neuroblastomas, lung, breast and renal cancer (Leone et al, 1991, 1993), but not in prostatic cancer (Brewster et al, 1994). These results suggest that the nm23 gene may have an important role in the mechanism of metastasis in many solid tumour forms
We have previously explored DNA ploidy, cell proliferative index (Lindmark et al, 1991) and p53 status (Kressner et al, 1996) in colorectal cancer, without being able to detect any substantial correlation to common clinicopathological characteristics and to patient survival time
It was not possible to clarify in this report the possible clinical significance of the differences observed in the nm23H1 staining patterns, as no correlation was found between the nm23-H1 staining patterns and the other clinicopathological tumour characteristics and patient survival time
Summary
Summary This study aimed to investigate whether immunohistochemical staining for nm23-H1 protein in the primary tumour is correlated with tumour stage, tumour differentiation, DNA ploidy, cell proliferative index, p53 status and patient survival time in colorectal cancer
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