Expression of Survivin and Cortactin in Colorectal Adenocarcinoma: Association with Clinicopathological Parameters

Abstract

Objective: Survivin and cortactin are factors that promote tumor progression. We tested the hypothesis that survivin and cortactin expressions correlate with the clinico-pathological parameters of colorectal adenocarcinomas and survival time. Methods: Immunohistochemical analysis of survivin and cortactin were performed using tissue microarrays of 119 specimens from 18 well, 50 moderately, and 27 poorly differentiated colorectal adenocarcinomas and 24 colorectal adenomas with dysplasia. As control, 10 specimens of normal colorectal epithelia were included. Results: The percentage of cells immunostained and the immunostaining scores for survivin and cortactin were all significantly higher in well-, moderately, and poorly differentiated colorectal adenocarcinomas than in normal colorectal epithelia. The survivin immunostaining score was significantly correlated with T, M, and AJCC/TNM stages (p `0.05). For cortactin, the score was significantly correlated with T and M stages (p ` 0.05). Higher survivin immunostaining score was associated with higher mortality. Conclusions: Higher expression of survivin and cortactin correlates significantly with tumor stages and shorter survival time. Survivin and cortactin may be good biomarkers of aggressiveness of colorectal adenocarcinomas. Our findings require validation in independent cohorts and these data support the potential targeting of survivin and cortactin for the development of novel therapeutic strategies.

Localization of cortactin is associated with colorectal cancer development

“…Cortactin overexpression is known to be associated with the development of cancer (7)(8)(9)(10)(11). The overexpression of cortactin obtained by immunohistochemistry in 62.5% cases of colorectal cancer is consistent with previous findings.…”

“…The C-terminal half is composed of an ·-helix domain of unknown function, followed by a proline-serine-threonine-rich region (PST) and Src homology 3 (SH3) domain (6). Gene amplification of CTTN and overexpression of cortactin have been reported in various cancers including colorectal cancer (7)(8)(9)(10)(11).…”

“…Forty colorectal cancer cases were studied. In previous reports, cortactin expression was related to depth of invasion (10). To reveal the association of cortactin expression with cancer cell metastasis, we randomly selected T2 stage according to the TNM classification system.…”

Survivin Expression in Colorectal Carcinomas: Correlations with Clinicopathological Parameters and Survival

“…Recently, Lee et al [50] found that higher expression of survivin correlates significantly with tumor stage and shorter survival time. Our study showed that survivin is expressed in the majority of colorectal carcinomas and is associated with tumor grade.…”

Immunohistochemical expression and serum level of survivin protein in colorectal cancer patients

“…(27) noted that the immunohistochemical reaction of survivin was associated with the presence of metastases and disease relapse in CRC patients. Moreover, Lee et al (28) showed that the positive expression of survivin was closely associated with primary tumor and distant metastasis categories, and with tumor stage. The present detailed analysis revealed a positive correlation between survivin located in the nucleus of cancer cells in CRC patients and distant metastases and tumor location.…”