Evaluation of the correlation of KAI1/CD82, CD44, MMP7 and β-catenin in the prediction of prognosis and metastasis in colorectal carcinoma

BACKGROUND To investigate the relationship of KAI1/CD82, CD44, matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP7) and β-catenin, and examine its association with clinicopathological features, metastasis and prognosis in colorectal carcinoma (CRC). METHODS Immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis was used to detect the expression of KAI1/CD82, CD44, MMP7 and β-catenin in 174 archival surgical specimens of human CRC. Furthermore, clinicopathological features such as age, sex and so on were also collected retrospectively. RESULTS CD44, MMP7 and β-catenin expression was positively associated with distant metastasis, lymph node metastasis and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage. However, decreased KAI1/CD82 expression correlated significantly with distant metastasis, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage. KAI1/CD82 expression showed a negative correlation with CD44, MMP7 and β-catenin. Furthermore, β-catenin expression showed a positive correlation with CD44 and MMP7. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that KAI1/CD82 and β-catenin expression were significantly associated with lymph node metastasis and KAI1/CD82 was significantly associated with distant metastasis. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that CD44, MMP7 and β-catenin expression was negatively correlated with overall survival (OS), while KAI1/CD82 expression was positively correlated with OS. Low KAI1/CD82 expression and high expression of CD44, MMP7 and β-catenin was associated with a poor prognosis in CRC. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that the expression of KAI1/CD82, MMP7 and β-catenin were independent predictors of OS in CRC. CONCLUSION The expression of KAI1/CD82, CD44, MMP7 and β-catenin is related to tumor metastasis and prognosis in CRC. Combined detection of these factors may be of significant value in predicting the prognosis and metastasis in CRC patients.