ADENOMA-CARCINOMA SEQUENCE - A REAPPRAISAL WITH IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL EXPRESSION OF FERRITIN

To examine the biological significance of ferritin (FRN) expression, a retrospective immunohistochemical study was performed in normal colon ic mucosae (n = 8), adenomas (n = 88), and colorectal carcinomas (n = 104). FRN was present in some epithelia in the crypt base of normal co lonic mucosae. Significant cytoplasmic staining for FRN was revealed i n 26 (29.5%) cases of adenoma and 54 cases (51.9%) of adenocarcinoma T he cancer cells had a higher proportion of FRN expression than those o f adenomas or non-neoplastic mucosae (P < 0.001). Expression of FRN sh owed a positive association with the degree of dysplasia (P = 0.039) a nd the distal location of adenoma(P = 0.013). FRN expression tended to be associated with the tumor size (P = 0.083), but no substantial dif ference was observed among the histologic types of adenoma (P = 0.754) . The results suggest that cytoplasmic FRN expression is associated wi th cellular proliferation. The proliferative index shows a significant difference through the adenoma-carcinoma sequence. Further investigat ion is necessary to clarify the clinical implication of ERN expression in tumor cells and normal-appearing mucosae. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc .