Previous reports showed that breast and
gastric cancers overexpressing
c-erbB-2 protein have a greater metastatic potential and worse prognosis than
tumors in which this
protein is not overexpressed. The present study was undertaken to examine the significance of
c-erbB-2 protein expression as a prognostic factor in
colorectal cancer.
Protein expression was examined immunohistologically in
colorectal cancer tissue from 149 patients without distant
metastasis, from 38 patients with liver
metastasis, and from 18 patients with lung
metastasis. The
c-erbB-2 protein-positive rate was significantly higher in cases with lymphatic vessel invasion in the primary
tumor, but it did not correlate with
lymph node metastases. Expression of c-erbB-2 did not correlate with any other histologic feature (histologic type, depth of
tumor invasion, venous vessel invasion, or the clinical stage). The positive rate in the primary lesion was significantly higher in cases with liver
metastasis than in cases without liver
metastasis, the positive rate was significantly higher in the hepatic than in the primary lesions. The expression of
c-erbB-2 protein in
colorectal cancer tissue correlates closely with liver
metastasis but not with lymphatic or lung
metastases.