Objective: Meningioma-associated protein (MAC30) is overexpressed in several types of cancers, but its therapeutic implication in the patients has not been studied. We examined the relationship of MAC30 with clinicopathological and biological factors in rectal cancer patients with or without radiotherapy (RT).
Methods: MAC30 was immunohistochemically examined in 75 distant and 91 adjacent normal mucosa specimens, 132 primary tumours and 39 lymph node metastases from rectal cancer patients participating in a clinical trial of preoperative RT.
Results: In the RT group, MAC30 was or tended to be positively correlated with infiltrated growth pattern (p = 0.02), PRL (phosphatase of regenerating liver, p = 0.01) and Ki-67 expression (p = 0.06). MAC30 at the invasive margin of the metastasis was related to poor survival (p = 0.02) in the whole group of patients. MAC30 in primary tumours was not related to recurrence and survival in the non-RT or RT group.
Conclusions: MAC30 expression in metastasis was an indicator for poor survival. After RT, MAC30 seemed to be more related to aggressive morphological and biological factors; however, we did not find direct evidence that MAC30 expression was related to the outcome of patients with or without RT.