A Prospective Study of Prognostic Value of Type IV Collagenase Activity in Colorectal Cancer Tissue

The purpose of this prospective study was toevaluate the prognostic value of the type IV collagenase(IVase) activity in colorectal cancer tissue ondisease-free and overall survival in 31 colorectalcancer patients. The clinicopathologic factors studiedfor prognostic value were age, tumor location, tumordifferentiation, preoperative serum levels ofcarcinoembryonic antigen, Dukes' stage, and IVaseactivity in colorectal cancer tissue. IVase activitiesin colorectal cancer tissue were significantly higher inthe group of patients with recurrences than in the groupwithout recurrences (P = 0.019). Patients with high IVase activity in colorectal cancer tissuehad a significantly shorter disease-free survival (P =0.0016) and overall survival (P = 0.022) time than thosewith low IVase activity. Univariate and multivariate analysis showed that significant prognosticfactors for disease-free survival were Dukes' stage (P= 0.029, P = 0.046, respectively) and IVase activitystatus (P = 0.0016, P = 0.0026, respectively). Withrespect to overall survival, only IVase activity statusprovided significant predictive value in multivariateanalysis (P = 0.041). This prospective study suggeststhat IVase activity is a valuable prognostic factor in colorectal cancer patients.