Clinicopathologic Significance And Correlative Study Of EpCAM Expressionand DNA Content Analysis In Colorectal Carcinoma

Aim:To investigate the clinical pathology significance of EpCAM(epithelialcellular adhesion molecule， CD326) expression, simultaneously, analyze DNAcontene of the corresponding tumor cells in colorectal carcinoma(cell cycle analysis).Methods:Direct immunofluorescence flow cytometry(FCM) was used to detect theexpression of EpCAM in55specimens of colorectal carcinoma and normal colorectaltissues. The expression of EpCAM protein was shown by the percentage of positivecells(PPC)and mean fluorescence index(MFI),Meanwhile,cell cycle of thecorresponding tumor cells were analyzed by cell Cycle analyser.From a cellquantitation angle，we analyze the relevance between them and the prognosisjudgment in colorectal carcinoma. Result：The values of PPC and MFI weresignificantly higher in colorectal carcinomatissue than that in the normal colorectaltissue （PPC:83.48±7.07%vs43.56±5.29%， t=39.22， P <0.001; MFI:28.90(19.60-45.89) vs4.89(3.79-6.28)，Z=-6.45， P <0.001）. The values of PPC andMFI were significantly higher correlated with infiltration and ulcer types, more poordifferentiation and tumor stages(Dukes and pTNM) and lymph noda metastasis thanthat in the normal colorectal tissue.(P <0.01). DNA contene analysis manifests thatthere were39of55polyploid specimens of colorectal carcinoma（70.90%）.The DNAindex (DI) and ploid were correlated with differentiation degree and Dukes Stages,butuncorrelated with lymph noda metastasis.At the same time,DI was increased with theupregulation of expression of EpCAM in EpCAM-positive cases(coefficientcorrelation,R=0.668,P=0.000).Also, the proliferation markers(SPF、PI)were increasedwith the upregulation of expression of EpCAM in EpCAM-positive cases(coefficient correlation,R=0.664,P=0.000;R=0.651,P=0.000).Conclusion:EpCAM expression and DNA content analysis are closely correlated withthe invasion，metastasis and proliferation of tumor cells in colorectal carcinoma.Thecombination of EpCAM expression with DNA content analysis is provided referencesto the prognosis judgment in colorectal carcinoma.