Nadia Naseem, Uzma Nabi, Sadia Anwar, Muhammad Rashid Siraj, Waqas Latif, Ah Nagi.
Neuroendocrine Differentiation in Colorectal Carcinomas – an Immunohistochemical Study.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;12(1):53-6.

Purpose : Neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) and its role in behavior of colorectal carcinomas (CRCs) is still debatable. The clinico-pathological pattern and the immunohistochemical expression of NE markers, chromogranin A (CgA) and neuron specific enolase (NSE) and their comparison with the histidine decarboxylase (HDC) immunohistochemistry in various subtypes of CRCs was carried out . Methods: Tissue biopsies from 100 patients presenting with variable morphology, histological grades and clinical stage of the CRCs were included. Clinical his tory was recorded and tissue sections were stained with CgA, NSE and HDC antibodies. Data were analyzed using SPSS 18.0. Results: Median age of patients was 57.5 years and 78% were males and 22% were females. Mucinous (74%), non mucinous (22%) and signet ring cell carcinomas (4%) were diagnosed. Well, moderate and poorly differentiate tumours formed 13%, 24%and 63% of all biopsies. Ten percent of cases were in stage I, 3 5% in II, 5 3% in III and 2% were in stage IV. Immunohistochemical staining of 21%, 15% and 11% of colorectal adenocarcinomas demonstrated HDC, CgA and NSE positivity respectively. HDC expression in detecting the NE foci in colorectal adenocarcinomas was stronger and more sensitive than CgA and NSE (P=0.006) and that too even in poorly differentiated tumours (P<0.001).Conclusions: A total of 20% of CRCs showed NED that related significantly with the tumour grade. HDC may reliably be employed in a panel of markers to assess NED in malignancies.

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