L1, β-catenin, and E-cadherin expression in patients with colorectal cancer: correlation with clinicopathologic features and its prognostic significance.

OBJECTIVE

Currently, there are no clinically used/routine biomarkers that accurately predict whether colorectal cancer (CRC) patients will or will not respond to adjuvant chemotherapy. The aim of this study was to investigate L1, β-catenin, and E-cadherin expression in patients with CRC and their relationship to tumor progression, and to identify patients who will respond to chemotherapy.

METHODS

A total of 142 patients who underwent surgical treatment for CRC were chosen retrospectively. The samples from these patients were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. SPSS-14 program package was used for statistical calculation.

RESULTS

Expression of L1, β-catenin, and E-cadherin were found to be strongly associated with invasion and metastasis of CRC. Cox multivariate analysis results indicated that L1 expression and stage of Dukes could be considered as the independent prognostic factors for survival. Furthermore, our study found that the 5-year survival rate was the significantly associated with the expression of L1, β-catenin (normal and ectopic expression), and E-cadherin for Dukes' stage B (P < 0.01) patients. However, no such result was found for Dukes' stage A (P > 0.05) and C (P > 0.05) patients.

CONCLUSION

Our study provided reference for identifying patients who need adjuvant chemotherapy. L1, β-catenin, and E-cadherin could be considered as biomarkers to predict whether CRC patients will or will not respond to adjuvant chemotherapy.