BACKGROUND/AIMS: The caudal-related homeobox transcription factor, Cdx2, plays an important role in proliferation and differentiation of intestinal epithelial cells. Its expression is confined to normal and neoplastic intestinal epithelium. We evaluated Cdx2 expression in advanced colorectal cancers to determine the correlation between Cdx2 expression and clinicopathologic characteristics. METHODS: Four hundreds twenty consecutive colorectal cancers were included in the study. Cdx2 expression was investigated by immunohistochemistry using tissue microarrays constructed from surgically resected specimens. 145 invasive breast cancers, normal tissues from gastric mucosa, liver, lung, kidney and ovary were used as control. Nuclear staining was considered to be positive and the result was divided into 3 categories. RESULTS: In the colorectal cancers, Cdx2 was expressed in 380 of 420 (90.5%) cases, and 349 of 380 (83%) cases showed strong and diffuse staining and 31 of 420 (7.5%) cases showed weakly positive staining. Forty patients (9.5%) of colorectal cancer were negative for Cdx2. All of the invasive breast cancers and all non-neoplastic control tissues except the regions of intestinal metaplasia in gastric mucosa, which showed strong Cdx2 expression, were negative for Cdx2. Loss of Cdx2 expression was observed more frequently in cases with deeper invasion (p<0.05), lymph node metastasis (p<0.05), poor histologic differentiation (p<0.001), and distant metastasis (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Cdx2 could be a highly sensitive marker to detect metastasis from intestine and might be useful as a novel prognostic marker in colorectal cancers.
Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Colorectal Neoplasms/*metabolism/pathology ; Female ; Homeodomain Proteins/*metabolism ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Tumor Markers, Biological/analysis

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Mesenchymal tumors are the most frequent submucosal tumors in gastrointestinal trail. We reviewed the mesenchymal tumors which are confirmed by pathology to examine whether the invasive approach of all mesenchymal tumors is necessary. METHODS: This study was performed on fifty-nine patients who has mesenchymal tumors confirmed by endoscopic or surgical resection from January 2000 to June 2004. RESULTS: Mesenchymal tumors consisted of thirty-six gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), 20 leiomyomas and 3 schwannomas. All the esophageal tumors were leiomyoma (12/12, 100%). In stomach, there were 32 GISTs (76.2%), 7 leiomyomas (16.7%) and 3 schwannomas (7.1%). And there were 4 GISTs (80.0%) and 1 leiomyoma (20.0%) in duodenum. Tumors less than 1 cm in maximal diameter were leiomyoma or GISTs with very low risk of aggressive behavior. 56.1% of the tumors larger than 1 cm consisted of low, intermediate or high risk GISTs. CONCLUSIONS: Biopsy must be considered according to its size and anatomic location of mesenchymal tumors. The invasive approach for every esophageal submucosal tumor is not necessary unless the size is very large, because most of them are benign in nature. However, the gastric submucosal tumor with more than 1 cm in diameter should be carefully and regularly followed up or biopsied because it cannot be assumed to be benign for any GIST more than 1 cm in size at the present time, safely.
Adult ; Aged ; *Biopsy, Needle ; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal ; Female ; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms/*pathology ; Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors/*pathology ; Humans ; Leiomyoma/pathology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neurilemmoma/pathology ; Upper Gastrointestinal Tract