Purpose: This study investigated the prognostic importance of protein expression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters ABCC10 and ABCC11 in colorectal cancer.
Methods: Protein content of ABCC10 and ABCC11 was assessed in tumor tissue blocks of 140 colorectal cancer patients and associated with survival of patients with regard to 5-fluorouracil-based therapy.
Results: Low ABCC10 protein content in tumors increased hazard ratio of patient's death more than three times in comparison with high ABCC10-expressing tumors (P = 0.004). In contrast, the low ABCC11 content increased the hazard ratio of cancer recurrence in patients almost four times (P = 0.016). Analysis of patients treated with regimens based on 5-fluorouracil revealed that patients with low ABCC11 content in their tumors had shorter disease-free interval than those with higher content (P = 0.024).
Conclusions: The present study shows for the first time that the protein expression of ABCC10 significantly associates with overall survival and the expression of ABCC11 with disease-free interval of colorectal cancer patients and provides strong impulse for further validation of their prognostic value in colorectal cancer.
Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Immunohistochemistry; Prognosis; Protein.