Background: We investigated the expression of PyNPase both in cancer cells and in stroma cells to clarify the correlation between PyNPase expression and the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer.
Methods: Using immunohistochemical staining with an anti-PyNPase antibody, the PyNPase expression in tissues from 114 patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer was examined. From the correlation between PyNPase expression and the clinicopathological findings, the prognosis for survival was analyzed.
Results: The expression of PyNPase was classified as negative or positive on the basis of staining. No relationship between PyNPase expression and any of the clinicopathological findings was identified. However, a relationship was observed regarding positive staining between cancer cells and stroma cells. The prognosis of patients with positive staining in both cancer cells and stroma was worse than that of other patients. In multivariate analyses, expression in cancer cells was the strongest predictor of prognosis.
Conclusions: PyNPase expression appears to be a relevant factor for predicting the prognosis of colorectal cancer.