Analysis of neuroendocrine differentiation and the p53/BAX pathway in UICC stage III colorectal carcinoma identifies patients with good prognosis.

Background And Aims: Neuroendocrine differentiation is an independent prognostic factor in colorectal cancer. Moreover, an altered p53/BAX pathway is associated with a poor clinical outcome in Union Internationale Contre le Cancer (UICC) stage III disease. Because these markers are involved in different genetic events disrupted in colorectal cancer, we investigated the prognostic power of a multimarker analysis.

Analysis of p53/BAX in primary colorectal carcinoma: low BAX protein expression is a negative prognostic factor in UICC stage III tumors.

Deregulation of cell death pathways contributes to tumor development and to the clinical course of cancer disease. In patients with liver metastases of colorectal cancer, we have previously shown that an intact p53/BAX apoptotic pathway is a positive prognostic factor. Therefore, the purpose of our study was to determine the prognostic value of BAX protein expression and the mutational status of its upstream regulator p53 in primary colorectal adenocarcinoma.