Expression and Clinical Significance of HK-Ⅱ in Colon Cancer

Objective To observe the expression of hexokinase type Ⅱ(HK-Ⅱ), its relationship with the proliferation and apoptosis of tumor cells and its clinical significance in colon cancer. Methods The expression of HK-Ⅱ and proliferative cellular nuclear antigen (PCNA) in 68 patients with colon cancer was detected by immunohistochemical technique, and apoptosis was observed by terminal deoxynuclneotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL). Then, proliferation index (PI) and apoptosis index (AI) were analyzed according to the expression of PCNA and number of apoptosis tumor cells respectively. Results The positive expression rate of HK-Ⅱ was 76.5% (52/68) in colon cancers. There were obvious increase in PI and significant decline in AI in colon cancers with positive expression of HK-Ⅱ (both, P<0.01). Compared these colon cancers with positive expression of HK-Ⅱ with those with negative expression of HK-Ⅱ, there were no significant differences in patients' age, sex and position of tumors (all, P>0.05), however, there were significant differences in cancer's differentiation, stage and lymph node metastasis (all, P<0.05). Conclusion HK-Ⅱ plays an important role in proliferation and progression of human colon cancer, and is useful for prognosis analysis and clinical treatment target.