Background: To improve the prognostic evaluation of colorectal cancer requires new molecular markers. Cancerous inhibitor of protein phosphatase 2A (CIP2A) serves as an oncoprotein by targeting PP 2A-mediated inhibition of c-Myc. A prognostic role for CIP2A has been demonstrated in gastric, lung and tongue cancers.
Results: CIP2A was overexpressed in 661 (87.9%) specimens. CIP2A overexpression was associated with tumor differentiation grade (p = 0.014), p53 immunopositivity (p = 0.042), EGFR immunopositivity (p = 0.007) and c-Myc nuclear immunopositivity (p = 0.018). In survival analysis, CIP2A failed to show any prognostic significance (p = 0.270, log-rank test).
Methods: 863 consecutive colorectal cancer patients treated at Helsinki University Central Hospital in 1983–2001 were collected with 752 scored successfully for CIP2A immunohistochemical expression from tumor tissue microarrays. Associations with clinicopathologic variables and molecular markers were explored by the chi-square test, and the Kaplan-Meier method served for survival analysis.
Conclusions: Overexpression of CIP2A in colorectal cancer patients may be an important step in colorectal carcinogenesis. Based on our findings, CIP2A shows no association with patient prognosis in colorectal cancer, but is associated with nuclear c-Myc.