Expression of FHL1 and Smad4 in colorectal cancer and its correlation with liver metastasis

LIU Yan-qing; SHENG Ji-zhang; SUN Feng-li; CUI Guo-zhong; ZHAO Lei; YANG Wen-hua; DAI Dian-lu

Abstract：Objective To detect FHL1 and Smad4 expression in colorectal cancer and to investigate its correla-tion with colorectal cancer liver metastasis( CRLM) .Methods One-hundred and twelve cases with colorectal cancer were enrolled and divided into two groups based on presence of liver metastasis.Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the expression of FHL1 and Smad4 in resection specimens of colorectal cancer tissue and adjacent tissue.Correla-tion of these expressions with CRLM was analyzed.Results FHL1 positive expression rate in tumor tissues of colorectal cancer was 20.5%(23/112), which was lower than that in adjacent tissues (94.6%, P<0.05).Positive expression rate of Smad4 in colorectal cancer was lower than that in adjacent tissues (14.3%%vs 96.4%, P<0.05).Expression of FHL1 and Smad4 in patients without liver metastasis was significantly higher than that in patients with liver metastasis. Single factor analysis showed that CRLM was associated with expression of FHL1 and Smad4, clinical staging and lymph node metastasis (all P<0.05).Multivariate logistic regression analysis further indicated that low expression of FHL1 and Smad4 was an independent risk factor in CRLM.The expression of FHL1 and Smad4 was positively correlated in Spearman relative analysis (r=0.462, P<0.05) .Conclusion Low expression of FHL1 and Smad4 are associated with CRLM, and are independent risk factors of CRLM.They may be novel biomarkers to predict liver metastasis of colorectal carci-noma.