PURPOSEThe purpose of this study was to investigate the significance of fascin expression in colorectal carcinoma.METHODSThis is a retrospective study of 167 consecutive, well-documented cases of primary colorectal adenocarcinoma for which archival material of surgical specimens from primary tumor resections were available. We chose a representative tissue sample block and examined fascin expression by immunohistochemistry using a primary antibody against “fascin”. We calculated the “immunohistochemical score (IHS)” of fascin for each case, which was calculated from the multiplication of scores for the percentage of stained cells and the staining intensity.RESULTSFascin immunoreactivity was observed in 59 (35.3%) of all cases with strong reactivity in 24 (14.4%), moderate reactivity in 25 (14.9%) and weak reactivity in 10 (6.0%) cases. Strong/moderate immunoreactivities were mostly observed in invasive fronts of the tumors or in both invasive and other areas. Fascin immunoreactivity scores were significantly higher in tumors with lymph node metastasis (p:0.002) and advanced stage presentation (p:0.007). There was no relation between fascin expression and age, gender, depth of invasion, distant metastasis or histological grade (p>0.05). There was a higher and statistically significant correlation between fascin immunoreactivity in the invasive borders of tumors and lymph node metastasis (r:0.747, p:0.005). In stage III/IV tumors, two-year survival was 92.2% in tumors without fascin immunoreactivity, and only 60.0% in tumors with a fascin IHS>10 (p:0.003).CONCLUSIONThese findings suggest that fascin is heterogeneously expressed in approximately one third of colorectal carcinomas with a significant association with lymph node metastasis, tumor stage and location. Moreover, these results indicate that fascin may have a role in the lymph node metastasis of colorectal carcinomas.

Fascin is a -55 kDa-actin binding protein. Actin bundles rearranged by fascin proteins are concentrated in cell membrane protrusions and these protrusions provide motility of the cell. In this study, we evaluated fascin expression in glial tumors and its relation with histologic grade. Its prognostic value in glioblastomas (GBs) was also investigated. Seventy-six glial tumors including 44 glioblastomas with known survival time, 18 anaplastic astrocytomas (AAs), six diffuse astrocytomas (DAs), and eight pilocytic astrocytomas (PAs) were examined immunohistochemically for fascin expression. Fascin was observed in the neurons of normal brain tissue and endothelium of vascular spaces in the glial tumors. Fascin expression was correlated with histologic grade in DAs. PAs expressed low levels of fascin. Half of the GBs showed high levels of fascin expression. In the GB group, overall survival was poor for cases with percentage of stained cells >50% having moderate or strong staining intensity. In GBs, overall survival was also poor for >50-year-old cases and cases that refused radiotherapy. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that age (>50 years, P=0.021) and higher level of fascin expression (immunohistochemical score >8, P=0.040) were independent poor prognostic factors. In conclusion, fascin expression levels are correlated with histologic grade and fascin overexpression may play an important role in the biologic behavior of glial astrocytic tumors and in the prognosis of GBs.

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are the most common mesenchymal tumors of the gastrointestinal tract (1-13). GISTs most commonly arise in the stomach (51%), and affect to a much lesManuscript received: 23.07.2010 Accepted: 07.01.2011 Turk J Gastroenterol 2011 22 (4): 363-368 doi: 10.4318/tjg.2011