Tn as a potential predictor for regional lymph node metastasis in T1 colorectal cancer

Background: Approximately 10 percent of T1 colorectal cancer (CRC) has lymph node metastasis. In this study, we aimed to determine possible predictors for nodal involvement in order to aid selection of appropriate patients for organ-preserving strategies.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed CRC patients underwent radical surgery from January 2009 to December 2016, with final pathology report disclosed as T1 lesion. The paraffin-embedded samples were achieved for glycosylated proteins expression analysis by immunohistochemistry.

Results: Totally, 111 CRC patients with T1 lesion were enrolled in this study. Of these patients, seventeen patients had nodal metastases, with the lymph node positive rate of 15.3%. Semiquantitative analysis of immunohistochemical results indicated that mean value of Tn protein expression in T1 CRC specimens was significantly different between patients with and without lymph node metastasis (63.6 vs. 27.4; p = 0.018).

Conclusions: Our data shown that Tn expression may be applied as a molecular predictor for regional lymph node metastasis in T1 CRC. Moreover, the organ-preserving strategy could be improved by proper classification of patients. The mechanism involved in expression of Tn glycosylation protein and CRC metastasis need further investigation.