Expression Of HOXD8 And Its Significance In Colorectal Cancer

Objective To investigate the expression of HOXD8 in colorectal cancer and its relationship with the clinicopathological characteristics. Methods The expression of HOXD8 was detected immunohistochemically in 40 primary cancer tissues and the corresponding normal epithelia(3.0cm away from the cancer margin) and graded according to the staining intensity ang the percentage of positively stained tumor cells.Results: HOXD8 overexpression was found in 32 of the 40 cases(53.3%). HOXD8 overexpression in the adjacent non-neoplastic tissues was found in 10 of the cases(16.7%),a rate significantly lower than that in the cancer tissues(p<0.05).HOXD8 expression was not correlated to such tumor characteristics as gender,age,histological differentiation grade,depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis(p>0.05). Conclusion HOXD8 expression is higher in colorectal cancer than in normal colorectal tissues,suggesting its involvement in the tumorigenesis and progression of colorectal cancer.