To investigate the relationship between homeobox A10 (HOXA10) and P53 protein expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis in colorectal cancer (CRC).

The clinical tissue samples of 97 patients with CRC who underwent surgical treatment in Xi’an Central Hospital from April 2017 to October 2019 were collected. Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect the protein expression of HOXA10 and P53 in cancer tissues and corresponding adjacent normal tissues.The relationship between HOXA10 and P53 expression and clinicopathological features was analyzed. Spearman correlation analysis was used to analyze the relationship between HOXA10 and P53 expression in cancer tissues. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to analyze the relationship between HOXA10 and P53 protein expression and postoperative survival rate.

The positive expression rates of HOXA10 and P53 in 97 cancer tissues were 74.2% and 68.0%, corresponding to the positive expression rates of 35.1% and 29.9% in adjacent normal tissues, and the difference were statistically significant (P<0.001). There was a positive correlation between HOXA10 and P53 protein expression in CRC (r=0.657, P<0.05). The expression of HOXA10 protein in cancer tissues was correlated with TNM stage, differentiation degree, lymph node metastasis and depth of invasion, and the expression of P53 protein was closely related to tumor diameter, TNM stage, differentiation degree, lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion and invasion depth (all P<0.05). After a follow-up of 32 (5-61) months, the 5-year cumulative survival rates of patients with positive HOXA10 and P53 protein expression were 45.8% and 42.4%, significantly lower than 68.0% and 64.5% of patients with negative HOXA10 and P53 protein expression (χ²=3.425, P=0.039; χ²=3.087, P=0.043).

Patients with positive expression of HOXA10 and P53 proteins have higher clinical stage, lower differentiation degree and increased risk of lymph node metastasis, which is related to the occurrence, development, invasion, metastasis and prognosis of CRC.