Predictive value of HLA-G and HLA-E in the prognosis of colorectal cancer patients

•Our results showed that 70.6% and 65.7% of the colorectal cancer tissues had positive HLA-G or HLA-E expression.•Cox multivariate analysis showed that only HLA-G expression can serve as independent factor for OS.•Our results also showed that the expression of HLA-E was significantly correlated with tumor metastasis.

HLA-G and HLA-E are non-classical HLA Ib molecules. Recently, increasingly more reports have shown that HLA-G is highly expressed in different malignancies. In this article, we detected the expression levels of HLA-G and HLA-E in primary colorectal cancer patients. Our results showed that 70.6% and 65.7% of the colorectal cancer tissues had positive HLA-G or HLA-E expression, respectively, and that 46.1% positively expressed both molecules. We also analyzed the correlations between the expression levels of HLA-G, HLA-E or both combined and the clinical outcomes of the patients. Kaplan–Meier analysis results showed that the expression levels of HLA-G or HLA-E alone and the combined expression of both molecules were all statistically correlated with the overall survival of colorectal cancer patients. Cox multivariate analysis showed that only HLA-G expression can serve as independent factor for OS. Our results also showed that the expression of HLA-E was significantly correlated with tumor metastasis.