A. Costa et al., CELL PROLIFERATION-RELATED MARKERS IN COLORECTAL LIVER METASTASES - CORRELATION WITH PATIENT PROGNOSIS, Journal of clinical oncology, 15(5), 1997, pp. 2008-2014
Purpose: We analyzed the relation between phenotypic (DNA ploidy) and
functional markers (S-phase cell fraction, p53, and bcl-2 protein expr
ession) and defined their relevance on clinical outcome on a retrospec
tive series of radically resected liver metastases from colorectal can
cer. Patients and Methods: Among 104 patients with resectable liver me
tastases from colorectal cancer, DNA ploidy was determined by flow cyt
ometry, H-3-thymidine labeling index (TLI) by autoradiography, and exp
ression of p53 and bcl-2 by immunohistochemistry. Results: TLI was a s
ignificant indicator for relapse at 4 years from radical surgery, DNA
ploidy was a suggestive indicator of clinical outcome, and p53 and bcl
-2 expression provided no clinical information, By multivariate analys
is, cell proliferation rate and Dukes' stage remained independent prog
nostic parameter, In the most representative subgroup of patients with
H-1 liver lesions (86 cases), TLI was always associated with relapse,
and DNA ploidy and p53 expression provided discriminant information w
ithin slowly proliferating liver lesions, Conclusion: Tumor-cell proli
feration of liver lesions should be used with stage of the primary col
orectal cancer for a more accurate prognosis in patients submitted to
curative hepatic resection, (C) 1997 by American Society of Clinical O
ncology.