Background: The risk factors for liver metastasis from colorectal cancer are still unclear. We therefore evaluated the relationships between various clinicopathological factors, including CD10 expression, liver metastasis, and survival, in patients with colorectal cancer.
Methods: Clinicopathological data for 1,025 patients with stage II or III colorectal cancer who underwent curative surgery in four participating hospitals were collected and evaluated. Three pathologists examined focal dedifferentiation, venous invasion, and CD10 expression without knowledge of the clinical outcome.
Results: Univariate analysis showed that pathological T (pT), pathological N (pN), venous invasion, focal dedifferentiation, and CD10 expression were significantly associated with liver metastasis. Multivariate analysis selected pT, pN, and CD10 expression as significant risk factors for liver metastasis. pT, pN and CD10 were also shown by univariate and multivariate analyses to be significantly associated with disease-free survival. The incidence of liver metastasis was 3% in pN0 patients with CD10-negative or pT2 or pT3 tumors and 28% in pN2 patients with CD10-positive or pT4 tumors.
Conclusions: CD10 expression is a significant risk factor for liver metastasis in patients with colorectal cancer and is correlated with prognosis. Patients with a high risk of liver metastasis can be selected on the basis of pT, pN, and CD10 expression.