Abstract
BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. Overall survival (OS) of patients is largely dependent on disease stage at diagnosis and/or surgical resection. TCN1 mainly encodes the vitamin B12 transporter, transcobalamin. Early studies show that TCN1 is a marker of CRC progression, but the impact of TCN1 on survival is unclear. MATERIAL AND METHODS We reviewed and analyzed colorectal tumor records, summarized the clinicopathological data, performed immunohistochemical detection of TCN1 again, and semi-quantitatively analyzed protein expression in tumor tissue, non-tumor tissue, and lymph nodes. We followed up patients for 5-year survival. RESULTS Of 123 patients, 60 (48.7%) had a strong TCN1 immunohistochemical reaction, 36 (29.3%) had a moderate immune response, and 27 (22.0%) had weak expression. The level of immunohistochemical reactivity of TCN1 was correlated with the degree of histological differentiation (H (2.92)=4.976; P=0.083). Survival analysis showed that OS in patients with low TCN1 expression was significantly longer than that in the medium and high TCN1 expression groups (P=0.045). Five-year OS in patients with low, medium, and high TCN1 expression was 88.9%, 50.0%, and 40.0%, respectively. In univariate analysis, TCN1 immune expression was significantly correlated with the 5-year survival rate. CONCLUSIONS Although independent risk factors affecting survival of patients with CRC are age, serum CA125, CA19-9, lymph node metastasis, and nerve invasion, negative factors affecting overall 5-year survival in TCN1 should not be ignored, because its high expression suggests a worse clinical prognosis.