Cell surface molecules and their prognostic values in assessing colorectalcarcinomas

Objective Carcinomas of the colon and rectum are the third leading cause of cancer-re lated deaths. Although advances in the surgical treatment of primary colore ctal cancers have lead to improvements in patient survival at early tumor s tages, treatment of more progressive cancers has not resulted in dramatic i mprovements in patient survival. However, the selection of patient subgroup s based on their prognosis and other characteristics could result in improv ed outcomes from adjuvant therapies in patients with Dukes B and C carcinom as. Methods The authors reviewed the available data on the value of cell surface molecu les in assessing the prognosis of colorectal carcinomas, paying specific at tention to the evaluation of statistical analysis and multivariate procedur es. Results Cell surface molecules have been identified on colorectal carcinoma cells w hose expression appears to be related to malignant transformation, tumor pr ogression, or patient prognosis. Among these cell surface molecules, variou s cell adhesion molecules, growth factor receptors, proteinases, and their receptors and inhibitors have been identified as potentially useful prognos tic markers, Conclusions Although data exist on the prognostic values of certain cell surface marker s, the use of multivariate analysis for the identification of valuable prog nostic factors remains uncommon. Using reproducible and standardized multiv ariate analysis procedures, new tumor markers should be carefully examined for their biologic and prognostic relevance before being considered as pote ntially useful in the management of colorectal cancers.