The aim of this study was to explore the expression and clinical significance of Foxp3 in colorectal tumor cells. An immunohistochemistry assay was used to detect the expression of Foxp3 in 173 cases of colorectal cancer. The relationship between the clinicopathological factors and the prognosis of colorectal cancer was analyzed. The rate of positive Foxp3 expression in tumor cells was 89.7%. There were no significant differences between cases with and without expression of Foxp3 with regard to sex, age, primary cancer sites, and distal metastasis. The expression of Foxp3 was negatively correlated with lymph node metastasis and pathological tumor, node, metastasis (pTNM) stage in tumor cells ( P < 0.05), which reflects the depth of invasion. Foxp3 expression also had a positive correlation with the degree of differentiation ( P < 0.01). A high level of Foxp3 expression was observed more often in tumor cells compared to tumor-surrounding tissues ( P = 0.003). High expression of Foxp3 was also associated with longer overall and disease-free survival ( P ⩽ 0.001). Foxp3 expression in colorectal cancer cells correlates with many clinicopathological characteristics; moreover, high expression of Foxp3 may be a promising potential prognostic factor for patients with colorectal cancer.
Keywords: Foxp3; colorectal cancer; prognosis.