Our previous study has suggested an oncogenic role of
eIF-5A2 in ovarian
tumorigenesis. Abnormalities of
eIF-5A2, however, in
colorectal carcinoma are unclear. In this study, amplification and overexpression of
eIF-5A2 in
colorectal carcinoma were studied by fluorescence in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry using
colorectal carcinoma tissue microarrays, including 139 primary
colorectal carcinomas and their adjacent normal mucosa, 22 paired premalignant
adenomas, and 42 metastatic
tumors. The immunohistochemistry results showed that overexpression of
EIF-5A2 was detected in none of normal epithelial mucosa, 35.3% of colorectal
adenomas, 53.2% of primary
colorectal carcinomas, and 67.6% of
metastases. Amplification of
eIF-5A2 was detected in 15.8% (16/101) of informative
colorectal carcinomas, and most of them showed overexpression of
EIF-5A2. In primary
colorectal carcinomas, the frequency of
EIF-5A2 overexpression was significantly higher in
colorectal carcinomas with lymphovascular invasion (61.2%) than that in
colorectal carcinomas without lymphovascular invasion (36.6%, P < .05). In addition, significant positive associations were found between
EIF-5A2 overexpression and the
tumors' later pN and pM stages, as well as increased
tumor cell proliferation (P < .05). These findings suggest that overexpression of
EIF-5A2 in
colorectal carcinomas may be important in the acquisition of a metastatic phenotype and plays an important role in
colorectal carcinoma development and progression.