Different antibodies have been indifferently used in different studies IWR-1 supplier for the detection of the CD133 molecule. In our opinion this can be a highly confusing factor. Indeed, we previously demonstrated, by western blot analysis, that CD133 is expressed at various levels in colon cancers [32, 33] and that different results can be obtained by using different antibodies [34] and similar observations

have been also selleck compound reported by other Authors [35, 36]. The observation that high CD133 expression has been reported to be a negative prognostic factor for colorectal cancers in several studies using different antibodies strongly suggests an important prognostic significance of its detection [1, 2, 37]. In our study, CD133 also confirmed to be an independent risk factor for a shorter disease-free and overall survival in a multivariate analysis (Tables  4 and 5). These findings are consistent with similar results reported in other human cancers and warrant learn more studies on larger cohorts

of patients to further evaluate its suitability as a prognostic marker in the clinical management of colon cancer patients. We observed an unexpected behaviour of CD133 expression which tended to be higher in the lowest grade/stage tumours than in more advanced lesions. Although not expected, this distribution is consistent with previous findings in a mouse model of colon carcinogenesis [38] and in human primary colon cancers [39]. Indeed, in mouse colon Dapagliflozin carcinogenesis we observed a significantly increased expression of CD133, assessed by immunohistochemistry,

in early neoplastic lesions which tended to decrease with tumour development, although remaining always higher in cancer than in normal adjacent tissues [38] and an increased CD133 expression, assessed using a quantitative reverse-transcription PCR, was reported in Dukes A compared to Dukes B and C colon cancers [39]. These findings are in agreement with the proposed ability of the protein to specifically identify tumour initiating cells, important for the growth of both primary and recurrent/metastatic cancers [40] and thus mainly involved in the most active phases of tumour development, i.e., in early lesions (low grade and low stage cancers) as well as in metastatic lesions. Consistent with this hypothesis, CD133 expression has been reported to be highly expressed in colon cancers with early liver metastases and to be a potential biomarker for the early liver metastases [41] and we also previously reported an increased percentage of CD133+ cells, assessed by flow cytometry, in metastatic vs primary colon cancers, [42]. It will be of interest to evaluate the immunohistochemical CD133 expression in the entire process of human colon tumorigenesis (i.e., from early to metastatic lesions) and evaluate how it correlates with tumour development.