HELIX-POMATIA AGGLUTININ BINDING IS A USEFUL PROGNOSTIC INDICATOR IN COLORECTAL-CARCINOMA

Background. Most deaths from colorectal carcinoma are due to metastase s. A relatively reliable prognostic indicator at surgery to date is th e Dukes' stage, but this is a morphologic approach that does not eluci date biochemical changes to explain why cells became metastatic. The b inding sites for the lectin from the Roman snail Helix pomatia (HPA) w ere shown to be good prognostic indicators in breast and gastric cance r, and accordingly, this study was performed to evaluate the use of HP A binding sites as prognostic markers in colorectal carcinoma. Methods . The histochemically detected expression of HPA binding sites in colo rectal carcinomas (n = 130) was increased. The results of the histoche mical findings were correlated with patient survival and tumor recurre nce. Results. The results indicated that the prognosis for the groups of patients whose colorectal cancer cells binded to HPA in tissue sect ions was almost as bad as those with Dukes' Stage C disease. Conclusio n. Because HPA binds to N-acetylgalactosamine, the authors' results in dicate that this sugar residue is at least partly involved in the proc ess of human colorectal carcinoma cells metastasizing to regional lymp h nodes and possibly also to distant sites.