Evaluation and prognostic significance of human tissue kallikrein-related peptidase 10 (KLK10) in colorectal cancer

The prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) is assessed through conventional clinicopathological parameters, which are not always accurate. Members of the human kallikrein-related peptidases gene family represent potential cancer biomarkers. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of human tissue kallikrein-related peptidase 10 (KLK10) by immunohistochemistry in CRC, to correlate this expression with various histopathological and clinical variables, and to evaluate its significance as a predictor of disease outcome. KLK10 expression was evaluated by immunohistochemistry and a combined expression score was calculated for each case based on intensity and percentage of positivity. A statistically significant positive association was observed between KLK10 and tumor stage and liver metastases (p = 0.015 and p = 0.035, respectively). Paradoxically, a negative association was observed between KLK10 and tumor grade (p = 0.009). Kaplan–Meier survival curves and univariate analysis showed that both KLK10 expression and stage had statistically significant correlations with disease-free survival (DFS) (p = 0.030 and p < 0.001, respectively) and overall survival (p = 0.010 and p = 0.001, respectively). Cox multivariate analysis showed that both KLK10 expression and stage were independent predictors of unfavorable DFS (p = 0.057 and p = 0.001, respectively) and overall survival (p = 0.009 and p = 0.001, respectively). In conclusion, KLK10 immunostaining is an independent prognostic marker in patients with CRC.