Expression Of CD133and CD44v6in Rectal Cancer After CRT And Its Correlation With Clinical Significance

AIM: To investigate the effects of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy on expression ofCD133and CD44v6in rectal cancer and its clinical significance.Methods: We used immunohistochemistry to investigate the expression of CD133and CD44v6in samples from82patients with rectal cancer who received neoadjuvantCRT(CRT group)，and from84patients did not received neoadjuvant CRT(Non-CRTgroup). The clinicopathological factors and survival rate of the selected patients wereevaluated.Results: By Immunohistochemistry examination， the expression of CD133iscorrelated with the pathological T staging，recurrence and RCGR (P <0.05).While thepositive expression of CD44v6is correlated with the lymphatic metastasis，recurrence and RCRG (P <0.05).The positive rates of CD133in CRT group weresignificantly higher than that in Non-CRT group68.3%vs.34.5%，P<0.05).Thepositive rates of CD44v6in Non-CRT group were significantly higher than that inCRT group(51.2%vs35.4%，P<0.05). The3years disease-free survival rates ofpatients in CRT group with CD133+were significantly lower than that CD133—(68.5%vs86.9%，P<0.05).In CRT group，the3years disease-free survival rates of thepatients with high and low expression of CD44v6was58.6%and84.9%(P<0.05).Thepatients with CD133+/CD44v6highget a worse prognosis.Multivariate Cox analysisdemonstrated that CD133as well as lymph node metastasis and ypT category wasclosely associated with the prognosis of the patients with rectal cancer after CRT.Conclusions: The CSCs whose biomarker is CD133+/CD44v6highmay make adifferent to radiation sensitivity in patients group CRT. The patients with highexpresion of CD133or CD44v6get a worse prognosis. The different typies ofCD133/CD44v6can be a probable prognostic marker in patients with rectal cancer after CRT.