Epithelial Syndecan-1 Expression Is Associated with Stage and Grade in Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Objectives: Loss of epithelial heparan sulfate proteoglycan syndecan-1 has been associated with a more aggressive behavior in various cancer forms, but the prognostic significance of syndecan-1 expression in colorectal cancer is unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of immunohistochemical syndecan-1 expression in a series of 237 patients with colorectal cancer. Methods: Paraffin-embedded formalin-fixed specimens were stained with a syndecan-1-specific monoclonal antibody, and both the epithelial and stromal expression were analyzed. Results: Epithelial expression of syndecan-1 was seen in 222 tumors (94%), and it was associated with low stage of disease (p = 0.002) and low histological differentiation grade (p = 0.048). The cumulative 5-year survival of patients with weak and strong syndecan-1 expression was 49 and 54 %, respectively (p = 0.234). Syndecan-1 stromal immunoreactivity was observed in 138 tumors (58%), but lacked prognostic significance. Staining pattern and distribution can be viewed from digitized representative microscope slides (virtual slides) at http://www.webmicroscope.net/supplements/syndecan. Conclusions: The results are in line with previous reports in that low epithelial syndecan-1 expression was associated with a higher histological grade and a more advanced clinical stage of the patients. This study shows that syndecan-1 is expressed also in stromal tissue of colorectal cancer, but it does not support the proposed role of stromal syndecan-1 expression as a marker of poor clinical outcome.

Heparanase-2, syndecan-1, and extracellular matrix remodeling in colorectal carcinoma

“…Immunohystochemistry studies of almost 240 colorectal patients observed that epithelial syndecan-1 (Syn-1) expression is associated with stage and grade of cancer [15]. Similar results have also been described showing a significant reduction in Syn-1 in severely dysplastic epithelium and colorectal carcinomas compared with adenomas [16].…”

An Immunohistochemical Study of Colon Adenomas and Carcinomas: E-cadherin, Syndecan-1, Ets-1

“…In addition, E-cadherin decrease was associated with the presence of the mucinous component and distant metastases, while syndecan-1 decrease correlated with large size and localization on the right colon. There are several studies supporting the correlation between decreased expression of these two markers and the following clinicopathological characteristics: histological grade and type [4,[10][11][12][13]23], lymph node and distant metastases [12,22,23], TNM stage [22,23], Duke's stage [13] of colon cancer and age [11], gender of the patient [22]. These didn't report connections between syndecan-1 and size or localization of the tumor.…”

“…According to previous CCR studies, decreased E-cadherin expression [4,10,11], decrease or loss of syndecan-1 expression [4,12,13], or elevated Ets-1 expression [6,7,10] predicts a more invasive behavior and poor prognosis. In this work we studied adenomas of different grade and de novo or ex adenoma colon carcinomas.…”

The role of syndecans in disease and wound healing

“…Although syndecan-1 is upregulated and appears to promote tumorigenesis in breast carcinoma, decreased expression and possible inhibitory functions have also been reported in lung cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer and a variety of other neoplasms (Table 1; Anttonen et al, 2001;Fujiya et al, 2001;Inki et al, 1994;Lundin et al, 2005;Miturski et al, 1998;Numa et al, 2002;Shinyo et al, 2005), suggesting that the ability of syndecan-1 to serve as a prognostic marker is cancertype specific. The expression and role of syndecan-1 in tumorigenesis can also differ within a particular cancer.…”