OBJECTIVE:

Interaction of CA19-9 with E-selectin is involved in initiation of hematogenous metastases. We investigated whether serum concentrations of E-selectin and CA19-9 are good predictors of hematogenous metastases and prognosis in colorectal cancer.

METHODS:

Pre-operative serum samples were obtained from 152 patients with colorectal cancer, and from 28 healthy volunteers. Correlation between serum E-selectin and CA19-9 was studied in terms of clinically detected hematogenous metastases and prognosis of patients.

RESULTS:

Low serum concentration of E-selectin was defined as <50 U/ml in healthy volunteers, and on that basis, 20.4% of all patients belonged to the high E-selectin group. Several distinctive characteristics were observed in the clinical course of patients with high serum concentrations of both CA19-9 and E-selectin. The rate of Dukes' D cancer was significantly higher, and curative surgery was performed less frequently in patients with high serum concentrations of both CA19-9 and E-selectin (60 and 40%) than in others. However, there was no significant difference in the frequency of recurrence after curative surgery between patients with high serum concentrations of both CA19-9 and E-selectin (25.0%) and others. Overall the 5-year survival rate was significantly lower in patients with high serum concentrations of both CA19-9 and E-selectin (34.3%) than in other patients. Even if the serum concentration of CA19-9 was high, prognosis was not poor in patients with low serum concentration of E-selectin.

CONCLUSIONS:

These results suggested that it was useful to measure both CA19-9 and E-selectin as markers of hematogenous metastases and as predictors of prognosis in colorectal cancer.