Associations of C-X-C motif chemokine ligands 1/2/8/13/14 with clinicopathological features and survival profile in patients with colorectal cancer

The present study aimed to assess the correlation of C-X-C motif chemokine ligand (CXCL)1, CXCL2, CXCL8, CXCL13 and CXCL14 with clinicopathological features and survival profile in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Patients with primary CRC (n=232) were retrospectively reviewed, with their tumor tissue specimens acquired from the Department of Pathology (The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China), their demographic data and preoperative tumor features collected from the hospital database, and their survival data obtained from the follow-up documents. Tumor CXCL expression was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Based on the total IHC score, the expression of CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL8, CXCL13 and CXCL14 was categorized as low expression (IHC score ≤3) and high expression (IHC score >3). CXCL1 (51.3% high and 48.7% low), CXCL2 (59.9% high and 40.1% low), CXCL8 (44.4% high and 55.6% low), CXCL13 (40.9% high and 59.1% low) and CXCL14 (31.0% high and 69.0% low) were expressed in CRC tumor tissues, and their expression levels were correlated with each other, except between CXCL8 and CXCL14, and between CXCL13 and CXCL14. CXCL1 was associated with a larger tumor size, and an advanced T stage, N stage and Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) stage. CXCL2 was associated with an advanced N stage and TNM stage, and CXCL8 was associated with a greater T stage and TNM stage. CXCL13 was associated with a greater T stage, N stage and TNM stage, while CXCL14 was not associated with any clinical characteristics. As for survival, CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL8 and CXCL13, but not CXCL14, were associated with poor overall survival (OS) rate, and further multivariate Cox's regression model analysis revealed that CXCL1 independently predicted unfavorable OS in patients with CRC. Overall, CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL8 and CXCL13 have good potential as an indicator for tumor features and survival in patients with CRC.