A prospective study of prognostic value of type IV collagenase activity in colorectal cancer tissue

The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate the prognostic value of the type IV collagenase (IVase) activity in colorectal cancer tissue on disease-free and overall survival in 31 colorectal cancer patients. The clinicopathologic factors studied for prognostic value were age, tumor location, tumor differentiation, preoperative serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen, Dukes' stage, and IVase activity in colorectal cancer tissue. IVase activities in colorectal cancer tissue were significantly higher in the group of patients with recurrences than in the group without recurrences (P = 0.019). Patients with high IVase activity in colorectal cancer tissue had a significantly shorter disease-free survival (P = 0.0016) and overall survival (P = 0.022) time than those with low IVase activity. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that significant prognostic factors for disease-free survival were Dukes' stage (P = 0.029, P = 0.046, respectively) and IVase activity status (P = 0.0016, P = 0.0026, respectively). With respect to overall survival, only IVase activity status provided significant predictive value in multivariate analysis (P = 0.041). This prospective study suggests that IVase activity is a valuable prognostic factor in colorectal cancer patients.