IMMUNOHISTOCHEMICAL STUDY OF E-CADHERIN EXPRESSION IN COLORECTAL ADENOCARCINOMA AND ITS RELATION WITH DIFFERENT CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL PARAMETERS
Mohamed Wagih
Pathology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Egypt
E-cadherin is a cell adhesion molecule that is crucial in the organization and maintenance of most epithelial tissues. The detachment of tumour cells from each other in the metastatic cascade of malignant tumours is a very important step. The aim of this study is to evaluate the expression of E-cadherin protein in a series of colorectal adenocarcinoma and analyze its relation to other clinicopathological variables. Fifty formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue blocks of colorectal adenocarcinoma were studied immunohistochemically for E-cadherin expression using anti-E-cadherin monoclonal antibody. E-cadherin expression was observed in 70% of the studied cases. The immunostaining scores were negative in 30%, weak positive in 18%, moderate positive in 30% and strong positive in 22% of cases. A statistically significant relation was found between reduced expression of E-cadherin and both tumour grade (P = 0.01) and the depth of tumour invasion (P = 0.02). Also, a significant relation was found between reduced expression of E-cadherin and lymph node metastases (P = 0.04) in the studied cases. Our findings suggest that declining E-cadherin expression is an important marker of tumour aggressiveness and is a possible immunohistochemical predictor of patient prognosis.
December 2018