Original scientific articlePrognostic Role of p53 Messenger Ribonucleic Acid Expression in Patients after Curative Resection for Stage I to III Colorectal Cancer: Association with Colon Cancer Stem Cell Markers

BackgroundThe current study was performed to examine the prognostic role of 53 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression in patients with colorectal cancer and analyze its relationship with the expression of CD44 and CD133 mRNA levels.Study DesignWe retrospectively reviewed 137 consecutive patients who underwent curative surgery for stage I to III colorectal cancer in 2006. Prognostic factors, including wild-type (wt) p53, cyclooxygenase-2, CD44, and CD133 mRNA levels, were determined using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and clinical outcomes were analyzed.ResultsWild-type p53 mRNA expression was correlated with the expression of CD44 and CD133 mRNA (p = 0.005 and p = 0.013, respectively). With a median follow-up period of 64 months, the 5-year disease-free survival rate of patients with elevated wt-p53 mRNA expression was significantly higher than that of those patients with low levels of wt-p53 mRNA expression (84.9% and 67.6%, respectively; p = 0.014). A multivariate analysis identified 3 independent factors that substantially affected the disease-free survival: depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, and wt-p53 mRNA expression. The 5-year disease-free survival rate in patients with stage III or rectal tumors differed significantly between the low and high wt-p53 expression groups. In stage III cancers, high wt-p53 expression was associated with better survival than low wt-p53 expression in patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy (p = 0.005). A significant association between combined p53/CD44 expression and survival was evident (p = 0.006).ConclusionsExpression of p53 mRNA is a useful predictor of survival in patients with stage III or rectal cancers, with a significant association with CD44 mRNA expression.