ABSTRACT
To investigate the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF-1α) and CD133 in predicting pathologic remission and survival of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy.One hundred and fourteen patients with locally advanced rectal cancer undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy from January 2010 to December 2015 in Jinhua Municipal Central Hospital were enrolled in the study. RT-PCR and immunohistochemistry methods were used to detect the mRNA and protein expression of HIF-1α and CD133 before and after chemoradiotherapy. Spearman rank correlation was used to analyze the correlation between HIF-1α and CD133 mRNA expression. Univariate and logistic multivariate analyses were used to determine the factors related to pathological complete response (pCR). Logistic regression analysis and Cox's proportional hazard model were used to determine factors related to overall survival and recurrence-free survival.The expression of HIF-1α and CD133 mRNA was correlated with pT, ypTNM, pCR, recurrence and metastasis of rectal cancer, while not correlated with sex, age and BMI of patients. HIF-1α mRNA expression was positively correlated with CD133 mRNA expression (=0.579,=0.000). Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that residual cancer cells strongly expressing HIF-1α also expressed CD133 strongly. Univariate analysis showed that HIF-1α mRNA and CD133 mRNA were significantly correlated with pCR (=0.001,=0.022, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that HIF-1α and CD133 mRNA expression were independent prognostic factors of pCR (=0.012,=0.047, respectively). Cox regression analysis showed that the expression of HIF-1α mRNA and CD133 mRNA were independent predictors of recurrence-free survival and overall survival (=0.025,=0.033, respectively).The study indicates that HIF-1α and CD133 can predict pathological complete remission and survival of patients with locally advanced rectal cancer.