Expression of survivin, MUC2 and MUC5 in colorectal cancer and their association with clinicopathological characteristics.

Survivin is a bifunctional protein that suppresses apoptosis and regulates cell division, and is highly expressed in various cancer types. Mucins are high-molecular-weight, heavily glycosylated proteins. In the present study, the association between survivin, mucin 2 (MUC2) and MUC5 expression, and the clinicopathological features of colorectal cancer (CRC) were investigated. The immunohistochemistry and western blotting results demonstrated that survivin was highly expressed in CRC tissues and rarely expressed in normal colon tissues. Moreover, the overexpression of survivin and MUC5 was strongly associated with lymph node metastasis, poor cellular differentiation, advanced tumor stage and a poor prognosis in CRC. By contrast, low expression of MUC2 was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, poor cellular differentiation and an advanced tumor stage in CRC. The results of the present study suggest that survivin, MUC2 and MUC5 levels may be associated with tumor progression and could be used to aid the early diagnosis and clinical characterization of CRC.