Objective: To determine the effect of clinicopathological and immunohistochemical factor on the prognosis of colorectal carcinoma.
Methods: The Cox model was used in a series of 68 colorectal carcinomas to study ten prognostic factors. These factors included tumor growth, stromal lymphocyte infiltration and fibrous tissue proliferation, degree of differentiation, Dukes stage, p53 protein, c-erbB-2 protein, P21 protein, PCNA proliferation index and EGFR.
Results: Monovariate analysis showed that tumor growth, stromal lymphocyte response, Dukes stage, p53, c-erbB-2 protein and PCNA index influenced prognosis significantly; multivariate analysis revealed 4 significant prognostic factors; P21, c-erbB-2 protein, Dukes stage and PCNA index. The relative risk (RR) for mortality was high in patients having P21 and c-erbB-2 co-expression. The RR of P21 and c-erbB-2 protein positive patients in Dukes A stage was higher than that of P21 and c-erbB-2 protein negative patients in Dukes B stage.
Conclusions: P21, c-erbB-2 protein, PCNA index and Dukes stage were independent predictors of survival. The prognosis of patients with P21 and c-erbB-2 protein co-expression was worse than in patients without this co-expression.