Clinical Implications of Periostin in the Liver Metastasis of Colorectal Cancer

AIM: To investigate the expression status of periostin in colorectal cancer (CRC) to lay a foundation for managing this disease. METHODS: Periostin expression status was detected by immunohistochemistry staining in 720 CRC specimens. The relationship between the periostin protein and clinicopathological factors and prognosis was subsequently determined. RESULT: The periostin protein was expressed significantly higher in CD133+ tumor cells compared to CD133- tumor cells. Positively expressed periostin was observed in 218 (30.28%) of the 720 cases. Spearman correlation analysis showed that periostin expression has a linear correlation to the tumor size, histological type, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and postoperative liver metastasis (p=0.02, 0.035, 0.001, 0.001, and 0.001, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that histological type, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and periostin were found to be related to liver metastasis (p=0.01, 0.035, 0.01, and 0.001, respectively). In the Cox regression test, the histological grade, Lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and periostin were detected as independent prognostic factors (p=0.01, 0.001, 0.001, and 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSION: Periostin was found to be related to the liver metastasis of CRC and may be a potential target for CRC.