J Pathol Transl Med.  2017 May;51(3):306-313. 10.4132/jptm.2017.01.19.

Overexpression of POSTN in Tumor Stroma Is a Poor Prognostic Indicator of Colorectal Cancer

• Oh HJ
• Bae JM
• Wen XY
• Cho NY
• Kim JH
• Kang GH

• KMID: 2392597
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4132/jptm.2017.01.19

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Tumor microenvironment has recently drawn attention in that it is related with tumor prognosis. Cancer-associated fibroblast also plays a critical role in cancer invasiveness and progression in colorectal cancers. Periostin (POSTN), originally identified to be expressed in osteoblasts and osteoblast-derived cells, is expressed in cancer-associated fibroblasts in several tissue types of cancer. Recent studies suggest an association between stromal overexpression of POSTN and poor prognosis of cancer patients.
METHODS
We analyzed colorectal cancer cases for their expression status of POSTN in tumor stroma using immunohistochemistry and correlated the expression status with clinicopathological and molecular features.
RESULTS
High level of POSTN expression in tumor stroma was closely associated with tumor location in proximal colon, infiltrative growth pattern, undifferentiated histology, tumor budding, luminal necrosis, and higher TNM stage. High expression status of POSTN in tumor stroma was found to be an independent prognostic parameter implicating poor 5-year cancer-specific survival and 5-year progression-free survival.
CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that POSTN overexpression in tumor stroma of colorectal cancers could be a possible candidate marker for predicting poor prognosis in patients with colorectal cancers.

Keyword

Colorectal neoplasms; POSTN; Immunohistochemistry; Stromal overexpression; Clinicopathological characters; Prognosis

MeSH Terms

Colon
Colorectal Neoplasms*
Disease-Free Survival
Fibroblasts
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Necrosis
Osteoblasts
Phenobarbital
Prognosis
Tumor Microenvironment
Phenobarbital

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1. Periostin expression in colorectal cancer. Grade 0 (A), grade 1 (B), grade 2 (C), and grade 3 (D) in moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma, grade 3 in poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (E), grade 3 in high tumor budding area (F).

• 

  Fig. 2. Kaplan-Meier survival curves according to the stromal periostin (POSTN) expression. (A) Five-year cancer-specific survival. (B) Five-year progression-free survival.

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