Prognostic value of CXCL17 and CXCR8 expression in patients with colon cancer

Abstract

C-X-C motif chemokine ligand 17 (CXCL17) is a mucous chemokine and its expression is highly correlated with that of G protein-coupled receptor 35 (GPR35), which has been confirmed as its receptor and named C-X-C motif chemokine receptor 8 (CXCR8)-CXCL17 is upregulated in several types of cancer-However, the biological role of this chemokine in colon cancer remains unknown-In the present study, the expression levels of CXCL17 and CXCR8 were examined using immunohistochemistry in 101 colon cancer tissues and 79 healthy tumour-adjacent tissues-CXCL17 and CXCR8 expression levels were increased in the colon cancer samples compared with tumour-adjacent samples-Patients with high CXCL17 expression had longer overall survival (OS) compared with patients with low expression of CXCL17 (log-rank test; P=0-027)-However, CXCR8 expression, but not CXCL17, was an independent prognostic factor for OS in patients with colon cancer-The expression of CXCR8 correlated positively with that of CXCL17 in colon cancer samples ( Ï=0-295; P=0.003)-Furthermore, the combined high expression of CXCL17 and CXCR8 was a significant independent prognostic factor for OS in patients with colon cancer (P=0.001)-In subgroups with a TNM stage of I-II, the patients with combined high expression of CXCL17 and CXCR8 had a longer survival compared with those without combined high expression (P=0.001)-However, this difference was not observed in subgroups with a TNM stage of III-IV-Collectively, these findings suggest that CXCL17/CXCR8 signalling may be involved in colon cancer and contribute to improved patient outcomes-.