Molecular markers are predictors of recurrence and survival in patients with Dukes B and Dukes C colorectal adenocarcinoma

Besides Dukes stage, multivariate analysis of all the studied molecular markers showed that patients expressing CD44 and cytokeratin-19 had a significantly reduced relapse-free and poor overall survival. Moreover, patients expressing both these markers (CD44 and cytokeratin-19) had the lowest significant relative risk for developing recurrence than patients with both markers negative when treated with surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy as compared with patients treated with surgery alone. Thus, in patients with colorectal cancer, immunohistochemical localization of CD44 and cytokeratin-19 may be included as a part of routine pathologic evaluation along with conventional prognostic factors.