Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 28, 2015; 21(4): 1140-1147
Published online Jan 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i4.1140
Loss of stromal caveolin-1 expression in colorectal cancer predicts poor survival
Zhi Zhao, Fang-Hai Han, Shi-Bin Yang, Li-Xin Hua, Jian-Hai Wu, Wen-Hua Zhan
Zhi Zhao, Fang-Hai Han, Shi-Bin Yang, Li-Xin Hua, Jian-Hai Wu, Wen-Hua Zhan, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Zhao Z and Han FH contributed equally to this work; Zhao Z and Han FH designed the research; Zhao Z performed the research; Yang SB, Hua LX and Wu JH analysed the data; Zhao Z wrote the paper; Han FH and Zhan WH edited the paper.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81072049.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Fang-Hai Han, MD, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Zhongshan Road No. 2, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China. fh_han@163.com
Telephone: +86-20-87332200 Fax: +86-20-87332200
Received: June 21, 2014
Peer-review started: June 22, 2014
First decision: July 21, 2014
Revised: August 22, 2014
Accepted: September 29, 2014
Article in press: September 30, 2014
Published online: January 28, 2015
Processing time: 219 Days and 18.5 Hours
Abstract

AIM: To investigate the clinicopathological significance and prognostic value of caveolin-1 (CAV-1) in both tumor and stromal cells in colorectal cancer (CRC).

METHODS: A total of 178 patients with CRC were included in this study. The correlation between CAV-1 expression and clinicopathologic features and survival was studied.

RESULTS: CAV-1 expression was detected in tumor and stromal cells. The expression of stromal CAV-1 was closely associated with histological type (P = 0.022), pathologic tumor-node-metastasis stage (P = 0.047), pathologic N stage (P = 0.035) and recurrence (P = 0.000). However, tumor cell CAV-1 did not show any correlation with clinical parameters. Additionally, the loss of stromal CAV-1 expression was associated with shorter disease-free survival (P = 0.000) and overall survival (P = 0.000). Multivariate analysis revealed that the loss of stromal CAV-1 expression was an independent prognostic factor for both overall survival (P = 0.014) and disease-free survival (P = 0.006).

CONCLUSION: The loss of stromal CAV-1 expression in CRC was associated with poor prognosis and could be a prognostic factor for CRC patients.

Keywords: CAV-1; Stroma; Colorectal cancer; Prognosis

Core tip: Caveolin-1 (CAV-1), an essential structural protein of the endocytic caveolae plasma membrane, plays a major role in modulating tumorigenic processes. Recent studies have revealed that the loss of stromal CAV-1 results in an activated tumor microenvironment and is significantly related to tumor recurrence and a poor prognosis for many tumors. However, the association between CAV-1 and colorectal cancer remains unknown. In our study, we observed CAV-1 expression in both tumor and stromal cells. Our results demonstrate that the loss of stromal CAV-1 is an independent predictor of poor overall survival and disease-free survival, whereas CAV-1 expression in tumor cells has no prognostic value.