Expression of Cortactin Correlates with a Poor Prognosis in Patients with Stages II–III Colorectal Adenocarcinoma

The present study was designed to specifically investigate the clinicopathological role of expression of cortactin, as well as the correlation with clinical outcomes in stages II–III colorectal cancer (CRC).

Two hundred and five stages II–III CRC patients were included in this study. Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded specimens were stained for cortactin and the correlation between the staining, its clinicopathological parameters, and its prognostic power were analyzed statistically.

Of the 205 patients studied, 113 cases (55.1%) were strongly positive for cortactin. Cortactin expression correlated with tumor invasion (P = 0.018), histological grade (P = 0.004), and preoperative CEA level (P < 0.001). In univariate analysis, tumor invasion, American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage, lymphovascular invasion, preoperative CEA level, and cortactin expression were significant prognostic factors for disease-free survival (P = 0.034, 0.009, 0.043, 0.004, and 0.004, respectively), while for overall survival, tumor invasion, AJCC stage, pathologic grade, preoperative CEA level, and cortactin expression were significant prognostic factors (P = 0.003, 0.008, 0.038, 0.017, and <0.001, respectively). In multivariate analysis, tumor invasion, preoperative CEA level, and cortactin expression maintained their independent prognostic influence on disease-free survival (P = <0.001, 0.003, and 0.008, respectively). However, tumor invasion, AJCC stage, and cortactin expression influenced overall survival (P = 0.036, <0.001, and 0.004, respectively).

Cortactin may be a good biomarker to be applied in the clinical setting to predict the prognosis of patients with completely resected pathologic stages II–III CRC.