Immunohistochemical dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase expression is a good prognostic indicator for patients with Dukes' C colorectal cancer
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Updated: Aug 25, 2026
Multiplexed Immunofluorescence Analysis and Quantification of Intratumoral PD-1+ Tim-3+ CD8+ T Cells
Published on: February 8, 2018
Kentaro Oi1, Masato Makino, Mai Ozaki
1Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, School of Medicine, Tottori University, 36-1 Nishi-cho, Yonago 683-8504, Japan. kentaro@grape.med.tottori-u.ac.jp
Background:
Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) is an enzyme that catabolizes 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), which is widely used for chemotherapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the clinical importance of tumor dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD) expression in patients with CRC treated with 5-FU remains unclear.
Materials And Methods:
We investigated DPD activities in normal mucosa (N) and tumors (T) by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 64 surgically resected patients with Dukes' C CRC who were treated orally with postoperative adjuvant FU-based chemotherapy. We also immunohistochemically investigated DPD expression in these specimens. The clinicopathological importance of DPD activity and expression was evaluated in the patients.
Results:
Positive DPD expression was detected in 28 tumors (43.8%) and tumor DPD activity significantly correlated with tumor DPD immunoreactivity (p=0.0121). Further, tumor DPD activity and immunoreactivity also correlated with lymph node metastatic status (p=0.0409). The disease-free survival rate of patients with positive-tumor DPD expression was significantly worse than that of patients with negative-tumor DPD expression (39.3% vs. 72.2%, p=0.0127). However, DPD activity in tumors or normal mucosa did not correlate with patient prognosis. Tumor DPD expression appeared to be an important poor prognostic factor in patients with Dukes' C CRC by multivariate analysis (p=0.013).
Conclusion:
Immunohistochemical DPD expression in tumors is a useful prognostic parameter in patients with Dukes' C CRC treated with postoperative adjuvant FU-based chemotherapy.