Expression of SATB2 in colon adenocarcinoma and its use for differential diagnosis

Objectives To study the significance of SATB2 expression in colon adenocarcinoma and its differential diagnosis function for ovarian metastatic adenocarcinoma. Methods Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression level of SATB2 in 130 cases of colon adenocarcinoma. The relationship between the positive rate of SATB2 expression in colon cancer and clinicopathological factors was studied. Forty-seven cases of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, 22 cases of cholangiocarcinoma, 46 cases of gastric adenocarcinoma, and 53 cases of ovarian mucinous adenocarcinoma were studied respectively. Results The positive expression rate of SATB2 in 130 cases of colon adenocarcinoma is 73.8%. The SATB2 expression bears no correlation with gender, age, tumor size, location, histology type, lymph node metastasis, staging, local recurrence, distant metastasis, survival, Kras mutation, and microsatellite stability. The expression rate of SATB2 is significantly higher in well differentiated and moderately differentiated colon adenocarcinoma than that in poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (χ2=12.804, P=0.002); the expression rate in the cases without tumor deposit is significantly higher than in cases with tumor deposit (χ2=6.485, P=0.011). There was no positive expression in all cases of pancreatic adenocarcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, gastric adenocarcinoma, nor in ovarian mucinous adenocarcinoma. Conclusion The expression of SATB2 is associated with the differentiation of colon adenocarcinoma and the formation of tumor deposit. SATB2 can be used as an effective tumor marker for identifying colorectal cancer ovarian metastases. Key words: Colonic neoplasms; Neoplasm metastasis; Tumor marker