High expression of SDC1 in stromal cells is associated with good prognosis in colorectal cancer.

We have previously reported that patients with high Syndecan 1 (SDC1) expression in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells have a favorable prognosis, and we also found that stromal cells showed upregulation of SDC1, but the clinical significance is unclear. The expression of SDC1 in the stroma cells was assessed by immunohistochemistry using a tissue microarray comprising representative cores from 513 CRC patients. The correlation between the expression of SDC1 in the stroma cells and the clinicopathological features of patients was analyzed. The data showed that the expression of SDC1 in the stroma cells was correlated with the degree of differentiation ( P  = 0.012) and tumor location (up or down) ( P  = 0.005). Also, CRCs patients with high expression of SDC1 in the stromal cells have a good prognosis ( P  = 0.0369). Accumulating evidence indicates that SDC1, whether in tumor cells or stromal cells, plays a tumor-suppressor role in CRCs.