Abstract: The Expression of NGAL, MMP-9 and E-cadherin in Colon Carcinoma and Its Correlationwith Recurrence, Metastasis and PrognosisJun GAO1, Yan SUN1, Xiulan ZHAO2, Baocun SUN2Correspondence to: Baocun SUN, E-mail: baocunsun@gmail.com1Department of Pathology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Thera-py, Tianjin 300060, China2Department of Pathology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, ChinaAbstract Objective: To investigate the effects of NGAL, MMP-9 and E-cadherin on the recurrence and metastasis of colon car-cinoma and its correlation with clinical prognosis. Methods: Clinical characteristics and prognosis of 227 colon carcinoma patients di-agnosed between 2000 and 2004 were reviewed. The paraffin embedded tissue samples were selected and tissue microarray blocks weremade ( 83 with recurrence and metastasis and 144 without recurrence and metastasis ). Immunohistochemical staining was used to eval-uate the expression of NGAL, MMP-9 and E-cadherin in colon carcinoma and its correlation with recurrence and metastasis in coloncarcinoma was analyzed. Results: The abnormal expression of NGAL and MMP-9 in the recurrence and metastasis group was higherthan that in the group without recurrence or metastasis ( P = 0.032, P = 0.000 ). The positive ratio of E-cadherin in the recurrence andmetastasis group was lower than that in the group without recurrence or metastasis ( P = 0.030 ). The mean survival was 47.427 ± 2.505months in patients with positive expression of NGAL and 48.081 ± 2.672 months in patients with positive expression of MMP-9. Themedian survival time was 37 and 35 months, respectively. The mean survival time was 65.714 ± 3.616 months in patients withoutNGAL expression and 69.598 ± 2.073 months in patients without MMP-9 expression. The median survival time was 77 and 75 months,respectively. The survival of patients with positive expression of NGAL and MMP-9 was shorter than that of patients with negative ex-pression of NGAL and MMP-9 ( P = 0.000, P = 0.010 ). The mean survival time and median survival time of patients with E-cadherinexpression were 61.587 ± 2.805 months and 61 months, significantly higher than those in patients without E-cadherin expression ( P =0.000 ), which were 39.535 ± 2.946 months and 23 months, respectively. Conclusion: The overexpression of NGAL and MMP-9 anddecreased expression of E-cadherin may play critical roles in the recurrence and metastasis of colon carcinoma and indicate a poorerprognosis.Keywords NGAL; MMP-9; E-cadherin; Colon carcinoma; Recurrence and metastasis