Significant elevation of survivin and livin expression in human colorectal cancer: inverse correlation between expression and overall survival.

BACKGROUND

Survivin and livin are novel members of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein family, which have rarely been studied in human colorectal cancer (CRC). This study aims to examine their expression and association with clinicopathological factors and prognosis in CRC, and evaluate the possibility of their use as biomarkers for CRC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We investigated the expression of survivin and livin in 61 CRC samples using immunohistochemical staining (Envision) and correlated it with the survival of these patients using log-rank test and correlation analysis.

RESULTS

Among the 61 cases, 60.7 and 54.1% were positive for expression of survivin (p < 0.05) and livin (p < 0.05). No expression of survivin and livin was detected in normal colorectal mucosa. An inverse correlation (r = -0.9916) between the increased survivin and livin levels and overall survival was observed in univariate survival analysis. The expression of both proteins was not correlated with age, gender, degrees of differentiation, and TNM stage (p < 0.05) in malignancies.

CONCLUSIONS

High expression of both survivin and livin may influence the prognosis of CRC. This finding opens new perspectives for CRC prognosis because survivin and livin can both be used as biomarkers or potential therapeutic targets.