To identify patients with an increased risk of tumor recurrence and evaluate the prognostic value of cytokeratin-20 (CK-20), we detected CK-20-positive cells in histopathologically tumor-free lymph nodes (pN0) of patients with colorectal cancer.
We investigated the utility of dual stain with special AT-rich sequence binding protein 2 (SATB2) or caudal-type homeobox 2 (CDX2) and cytokeratin 20 (CK20) or villin in identifying CRC.
Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and cytokeratin 20 (CK20) were chosen as markers because they are selectively expressed in epithelial cells with maintained expression in CRC.
The aim of this prospective study was to relate the incidences of cytokeratin 20 (CK20) and guanylylcyclase C (GCC) in lymph node, liver, and bone marrow specimens of 245 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients with the K-ras oncogene status of the corresponding primary tumor.
In our study, we performed immunohistochemical staining with CK7 and CK20 in 52 randomly selected cases of CRC and analyzed microsatellite instability status and BRAF mutations to identify those factors that may determine the changing pattern of CK7/CK20 immunophenotype in these tumors.
Statistical analysis revealed that the combination of CK19 and CK20 could be useful in the exclusion of colorectal cancer, as well as the diagnosis and exclusion of gastric cancer.
The immunophenotypes were not statistical significantly related to synchronous CRC (<i>P</i> = 0.402, 0.650, 0.127, and 0.068 for CK7, CK20, CDX2, and GCDFP-15, respectively).
Evaluation of cytokeratin 20 (CK20) specific quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry (IHC) for detection of occult tumor cells in lymph nodes of 72 patients with colorectal carcinoma (UICC stage I and II).
Combining evaluation of SATB2 with CK20 and CDX2 to form a three marker panel further improved the detection of metastatic CRCs in liver biopsy tissues.
These results suggest that detecting CEA/CK20 mRNA in tumor drainage blood by real-time RT-PCR has prognostic value in patients with colorectal cancer.
mRNA for carcinoembryonic antigen and cytokeratin 20 was identified by RT-PCR in blood from patients with colorectal cancer, before and after primary tumour resection.
(1) Statistically significant high levels of CK20,VEGF, CEA (p = 0.000 each) and CA19-9 (p = 0.002) in CRC patients when compared with controls; (2) Statistically significant increase in the expression of CK20 in advancing CRC stage C (p = 0.001) and with LN metastasis (p = 0.000); (3) Statistically significant increase in the expression of VEGF in advancing CRC stage C (p = 0.002), pathologic grade (p = 0.038), and with LN metastasis (p = 0.004); and (4) statistically positive correlation between CK20 and VEGF expressions, and also between these markers and CEA level.
CK 20 RT-PCR assay has been extensively used to detect isolated cancer cells in peripheral blood, lymph nodes and bone marrow samples of patients with colorectal carcinoma.
The clinical significance of findings in colorectal cancer was investigated by detecting CK20-positive CTCs (pCTC) in patients with colorectal cancer, other common cancers, colorectal adenoma, benign colorectal diseases, and normal subjects.
The aim of this study was to verify the usefulness of the estimation of CEA and CK20 gene expressions in tissues of colorectal cancers and their liver metastases.