[Clinical significance of survivin expression in colorectal cancer and its relationship with cell apoptosis and angiogenesis].

Background & Objective: Expression of survivin, an apoptosis suppressor gene, in colorectal cancer(CRC), and its relationship with pathologic factors, cell apoptosis, and angiogenesis are unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effect of survivin on cell apoptosis, and its relation with angiogenesis, and to further explore the effects of survivin on development and prognosis of CRC.
Methods: Protein expression of survivin, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in 91 specimens of CRC was detected by immunohistochemistry, apoptosis index (AI) of tumor cells was detected by TUNEL method.
Results: Positive rate of survivin in CRC with distant metastasis was 56.0% (14/25), significantly higher than that in CRC without metastasis (48.5%, 32/66) (P<0.05); and that in 5-year survival patients(42.9%,30/70) was lower than that in patients died within 5 years (76.2%,16/21) (P<0.01). The average survival time of patients with positive expression of survivin was 91.3 months, and that of patients with negative expression of survivin was 116.4 months; 5-year survival rate of the former (65.2%, 30/46) was significantly lower than that of the latter (88.9%, 40/45) (P<0.01). The average AI of patients with positive expression of survivin was lower than that of patients with negative expression of survivin [(0.74+/-0.19)% vs. (1.07+/-0.24)%, P<0.01]; the expression of survivin significantly correlated with that of VEGF (pearson: 0.721).
Conclusion: Survivin may promote metastasis, and affect prognosis of CRC through inhibiting cell apoptosis, and regulating angiogenesis of CRC.