Cancer stem cell-related factors are associated with the efficacy of pre-operative chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced rectal cancer.

Pre-operative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is an important neoadjuvant therapy for locally advanced rectal cancer. In the present study, we investigated the factors that influence the efficacy of pre-operative CRT in locally advanced rectal cancer. We divided 50 patients with locally advanced rectal carcinoma treated with pre-operative CRT into two groups according to the grade of tumor response to pre-operative CRT: low-sensitivity group and high-sensitivity group. As candidates for the prediction of sensitivity to pre-operative CRT, clinicopathological factors and 12 biomarkers, including factors related to tumor growth, cell cycle, apoptosis, tumor stroma and cancer stem cells, were examined immunohistochemically in 48 resected specimens. Thirty-one tumors showed high sensitivity and 19 showed low sensitivity to pre-operative CRT. The status of stem cell-related factors, CD133 and CD24, was significantly associated respectively with sensitivity to pre-operative CRT (P=0.003, P=0.029). In 10 tumors positive for both CD133 and CD24, low sensitivity to CRT was found in 9 (90%), whereas in 16 tumors negative for both CD133 and CD24, low sensitivity was found in 3 (19%). Other pathological parameters were not associated with tumor response to pre-operative CRT. In conclusion, overexpression of cancer stem cell-related factors, CD133 and CD24, is associated with the sensitivity of locally advanced rectal cancer to pre-operative CRT.