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. 1999 Mar;79(9-10):1494–1499. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6690238

Serum YKL-40 and colorectal cancer

C Cintin 1, J S Johansen 2, I J Christensen 3, P A Price 4, S Sørensen 5, H J Nielsen 1
PMCID: PMC2362720  PMID: 10188896

Abstract

YKL-40 is a mammalian member of the chitinase protein family. Although the function of YKL-40 is unknown, the pattern of its expression suggests a function in remodelling or degradation of extracellular matrix. High serum YKL-40 has been found in patients with recurrent breast cancer and has been related to short survival. In the present study we analysed YKL-40 in preoperative sera from patients with colorectal cancer and evaluated its relation to survival. Serum YKL-40 was determined by RIA in 603 patients. Survival after operation was registered, and median follow-up time was 61 months. Three hundred and forty patients died. Sixteen per cent of the patients with Dukes' A, 26% with Dukes' B, 19% with Dukes' C and 39% with Dukes' D had high serum YKL-40 levels (adjusted for age). Analysis of serum YKL-40 as a continuous variable showed an association between increased serum YKL-40 and short survival (P < 0.0001). Patients with high preoperative serum YKL-40 concentration had significantly shorter survival than patients with normal YKL-40 (HR = 1.7; 95% CI: 1.3–2.1, P < 0.0001). Multivariate Cox analysis including serum YKL-40, serum CEA, Dukes' stage, age and gender showed that high YKL-40 was an independent prognostic variable for short survival (HR = 1.4; 95% CI: 1.1–1.8, P = 0.007). These results suggest that YKL-40 may play an important role in tumour invasion. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign

Keywords: carcinoembryonic antigen, colorectal cancer, metastasis, tumour invasiveness, YKL-40/HC gp-39

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Footnotes

*YKL-40 has been named after its molecular weight (40 kDa) and the one letter code for its three N-terminal amino acids (Johansen et al, 1992). The protein is also called human cartilage glycoprotein-39 (HC gp-39) (Hakala et al, 1993)

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