Figure 3.

Characteristics of the cohort of patients with colorectal carcinoma analyzed in this study. A) GIV-fl expression varies among colorectal adenocarcinomas within the same stage. Paraffin-embedded human colon samples [normal (a–d) or cancers of Duke's clinical stage B2 (e–h)] were analyzed for GIV-fl by IHC using GIV-CTAb. Normal colon epithelium stained negative for GIV-fl other than at crypt bases. Stroma (S) consistently stained strongly positive (b–h) in both normal and cancer tissues alike, whereas tumor epithelia showed variable staining (e–h). Representative fields from normal colon crypts (c, d), tumors negative for GIV-fl (e, f), and positive for GIV-fl (g, h) are displayed. Staining was scored as negative or positive by 3 independent observers masked to the disease stage with >95% congruency. Images in d, f, g are a higher magnification of the boxed regions in c, e, g. B) Kaplan-Meier survival curve for the cohort of patients with Duke's stage B colorectal cancer analyzed in this study. Kaplan-Meier plot was generated using the survival data (y axis) of patients in the Duke's B cohort plotted against the duration of follow-up (x axis). Overall survival in this cohort at 5 yr is ∼80%. C) Characteristics of 56 patients with Duke's B2 colorectal cancer evaluated for GIV-fl expression. Mean age, age at diagnosis of colon cancer; M, male; F, female; Death, number of patients who died within 5-yr follow-up period; MSS, colorectal cancer with MSS; MSI, cancer with high-frequency MSI. Age at diagnosis and gender were unknown for 8/56 patients, whereas information on survival and MSI status was available for all subjects. Total number of patients who received a 5-yr follow up was 24 in each group. We used an unpaired Student's t test to compare all variables (mean age at diagnosis, gender ratio M/F, deaths within 5 yr and MSI:MSS ratio).