Cyclin D1 overexpression and prognosis in colorectal adenocarcinoma

Recently, it has been reported that cyclin D-1 plays a major role in oncogenesis in various cancers; however, there have been few studies on the association of cyclin D-1 overexpression and prognosis of patients with malignant tumors. We evaluated the prognostic significance of cyclin D-1 overexpression in colorectal adenocarcinoma. One hundred twenty-three specimens resected from patients with colorectal adenocarcinomas were investigated by staining with a monoclonal antibody against cyclin D-1. As a result, both overall survival and disease-free survival were significantly poorer in the patients with tumors strongly positive for cyclin D-1 than in those with cyclin-D-1-negative or weakly positive tumors. The 5-year survival rate of the patients with tumors strongly positive for cyclin D-1 was 53.3%, while the 5-year survival rates of patients with cyclin-D-1-negative and weakly positive tumors were 96.2 and 78.8%, respectively. Moreover, multivariate analysis indicated that cyclin D-1 overexpression is an independent predictor of disease recurrence in our patients. In conclusion, cyclin D-1 overexpression may be useful as a predictor of disease recurrence in colorectal adenocarcinoma.