Background: CD133 is a transmembrane protein that is proposed to be a stem cell marker of colorectal cancer (CRC); however, the correlation between CD133 expression and survival of CRC patients with liver metastasis has not been fully examined.
Methods: CD133 expression was evaluated immunohistochemically, both in primary tumors and synchronous liver metastases of 88 consecutive CRC patients, as well as recurrent lesions in the remnant liver of 27 of these 88 patients. The relationship between CD133 expression and clinicopathological characteristics, recurrence-free survival, and overall survival (OS) was analyzed.
Results: CD133 expression in liver metastases (mCD133) was detected in 50 of 88 patients (56.8 %), and had significant correlation with CD133 expression in primary lesions (pCD133) (p < 0.001). CD133 expression in liver recurrent lesions (recCD133) also had a significant correlation with mCD133 (p < 0.001). mCD133+ patients had significantly longer disease-free survival (p = 0.043) and OS (p = 0.014) than mCD133- patients. In addition, mCD133+ patients had a significantly lower rate of extrahepatic recurrence (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: Patients without CD133 expression in liver metastasis had significantly shorter survival, perhaps because mCD133- patients had a significantly higher rate of extrahepatic recurrence.