Although there is immunophenotypic overlap, focal staining with CK20 together with diffuse CK7 and sometimes p16 positivity helps to distinguish intestinal types of cervical adenocarcinoma from involvement by a colorectal adenocarcinoma; CEA and CDX2 are of no value in this regard.
The aims of the present study were 1) to compare the mRNA and protein expression of CDX-2 in biopsies obtained from patients with BE and normal squamous epithelium and 2) to study the effect of two different bile salts, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and deoxycholic acid (DCA), on the mRNA expression of CDX-2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in Barrett's the adenocarcinoma cell line (OE-33).
Consistent with previous reports, CDX2 staining was observed in gastric adenocarcinomas (n=71), more commonly in the intestinal-type than the diffuse-type (28.9 vs 11.5%, P<0.05).
Significant correlations were found between claudin-2 and Cdx2 protein expression in dysplasia and intestine-type adenocarcinoma (r = 0.112, p < 0.05).
There was no CDX2 protein expression in normal squamous esophagus, but moderate to strong protein expression was seen in all Barrett's tissues and in a majority of the dysplasia and adenocarcinoma cells.
Our results indicate that cervical adenocarcinomas can show nuclear immunopositivity for CDX2 even in the absence of overt morphologic features of colorectal differentiation.