Nuclear expression of phosphorylated focal adhesion kinase is associated with poor prognosis in human colorectal cancer

• Published in: Anticancer research Vol. 34; no. 8; pp. 3969 - 3974
• Main Authors: Albasri, Abdulkader, Fadhil, Wakkas, Scholefield, John H, Durrant, Lindy G, Ilyas, Mohammad
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Greece 01-08-2014
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Cell Nucleus - metabolism; Colorectal Neoplasms - metabolism; Colorectal Neoplasms - mortality; Colorectal Neoplasms - pathology; Female; Focal Adhesion Protein-Tyrosine Kinases - metabolism; Humans; Male; Microfilament Proteins - analysis; Middle Aged; Neoplasm Metastasis; Phosphorylation; Prognosis; Tensins; Tissue Array Analysis; TNS4 (CTEN); focal adhesion kinase; prognosis; Colorectal cancer
• ISSN: 1791-7530

To determine whether phosphorylated focal adhesion kinase (P-FAK) has prognostic value in colorectal cancer (CRC) and to test whether it has any association with Tensin 4 (TNS4) expression.
P-FAK expression was assessed using immunohistochemistry in 462 CRC cases arrayed on a tissue microarray. P-FAK and TNS4 expression were assessed by immunohistochemistry in 40 cases of paired primary colorectal cancer and corresponding hepatic metastases.
Nuclear P-FAK expression was observed in 44% of studied cases. Positive nuclear P-FAK expression was associated with shorter disease-specific survival in univariate (p=0.005) and multivariate analysis (p=0.016). P-FAK expression was greater in metastases than the primary tumours (p<0.001) and showed significant association with nuclear TNS4 (p<0.001) in metastases.
P-FAK expression is an independent prognostic marker in CRC. The present data suggest that the FAK signalling pathway may interact with TNS4, a known oncogene in CRC.