Abstract
AIM: To detect the expression of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells among Saudi patients, and correlate its expression with clinical stages of cancer.
METHODS: Archival tissue specimens were collected from 30 patients with CRC who had undergone surgical intervention at King Khalid University Hospital. Patient demographic information, including age and gender, tumor sites, and histological type of CRC, was recorded. To measure TNF-alpha mRNA expression in CRC, total RNA was extracted from tumor formalin-fixed, paraffinembedded, and adjacent normal tissues. Reverse transcription and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction were performed. Colorectal tissue microarrays were constructed to investigate the protein expression of TNF-alpha by immunohistochemistry.
RESULTS: The relative expression of TNF-alpha mRNA in colorectal cancer was significantly higher than that seen in adjacent normal colorectal tissue. High TNF-alpha gene expression was associated with Stage. and. neoplasms when compared with earlier tumor stages (P = 0.004). Eighty-three percent of patients (25/30) showed strong TNF-alpha positive staining, while only 10% (n = 3/30) of patients showed weak staining, and 7% (n = 2/30) were negative. We showed the presence of elevated TNF-alpha gene expression in cancer cells, which strongly correlated with advanced stages of tumor.
CONCLUSION: High levels of TNF-alpha expression could be an independent diagnostic indicator of colorectal cancer, and targeting TNF-alpha might be a promising prognostic tool by assessment of the clinical stages of CRC. (C) 2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.