The Relationship Between IMP3 Expression in Colorectal Adenocarcinoma and Clinicopathologic Findings

Background: The IMP3 is an oncofetal protein, which has been recently proposed as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in many cancers, including colorectal adenocarcinoma. The overexpression of IMP3 seems to have a correlation with patient’s prognosis. Objectives: In this study, the relationship between IMP3 expression in colorectal adenocarcinoma and clinicopathologic findings was assessed. Patients and Methods: In this study 112 colorectal tumor paraffin blocks of Rasoul-e-Akram hospital were stained for IMP3 and slides were assessed for intensity and extent of positivity. The statistical relationships between marker expression and clinicopathologic findings (degree of differentiation, tumor size, depth of invasion and lymph nodes metastasis) were assessed. Data were analyzed by the SPSS 21 software and logistic regression and chi-square test, with p-values of less than 0.05 indicating statistical significance. Results: Immunoreactivity pattern of IMP3 was cytoplasmic in different clinicopathologic findings. Among different clinicopathologic findings, we found a statistical relationship between tumor differentiation and IMP3 (P = 0.047); so that, the poorly differentiated tumors were positive for this marker. No relationship was found between tumor size, depth of invasion or lymph node involvement and IMP3. Conclusions: IMP3 immunoreactivity was associated with poor differentiation of tumor yet not associated with tumor size depth of invasion or lymph node involvement