Expression And Clinical Significance Of Survivin And P27^Kip1 Protein In Colon Carcinoma

Background & Objective: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies in the world and a leading cause of cancer deaths with an increasing incidence in more recent years. Tumour kinetic studies suggest that tumour growth does not only result from increased rates of cell proliferation but also from decreased rates of apoptosis. Survivin is recently identified members of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAPs). It can block the transduction of apoptosis signal by binding to downstream molecules in signal transduction pathway of apoptosis and then inhibit their biologic activity. p27 (cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 1B, CDKN1B or KIP1) is one of the cyclin-CDK inhibitors and plays a key role in preventing progression into S-phase of the cell cycle. This study was designed to investigate the expression of Survivin and its correlation with expression of p27Kip1 protein in colon carcinoma.Methods Expression of Survivin and p27Kip1 protein was investigated by immunohistochemistry in 10 cases of normal colon tissues and 83 cases of colon cancer tissues(9 cases from Dukes'A stage colon cancer patient,16 cases from B stage , 31 cases from C stage and 27 cases from D stage ) . The patients'clinicopathological parameters were collected. The relationship between Survivin expression and clinicopathological parameters as well as p27Kip1 expression was analyzed. The data were analyzed by SPSS13.0 for windows.Results The positive expression rate of Survivin was significantly higher in colon cancer tissue (83.1%, 69/83) than in normal colon tissue (0.0%, 0/10) (P<0.01). Expressions of Survivin were not related to age, sex, tumor location, gross findings, size, histological differentiation, depth of bowel wall invasion, lymph node metastasis, distal metastasis and Dukes stage (P>0.05). The positive expression rate of p27Kip1 was significantly lower in colon cancer tissue (41.0%, 34/83) than in normal colon tissue (90.0%, 9/10) (P<0.01). The positive expression rate of p27Kip1 in colon cancer was significantly lower in distant metastasis group (16.7%, 3/18) than in non-distant metastasis group (47.7%, 31/65) (P<0.05). The expression of p27Kip1 was significantly correlated with histological differentiation, invasion depth and Dukes stages (P<0.05). The expression of p27Kip1 increased with histological differentiation, invasion depth and Dukes stage. There was not correlation between the expression of Survivin and p27Kip1 (r=0.096,P>0.05).Conclusion The abnormal expressions of Survivin and p27Kip1 proteins indicate that Survivin and p27Kip1 may play an important role in onset and progression of colon cancer. No correlation is found between Survivin and p27Kip1 expressions in colon cancer. Lack of p27Kip1 protein expression in colon cancer may be associated with its poor prognosis.