Background: Proliferation markers are necessary for reliable diagnosis. Here we have presented for the first time thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) as a proliferative tumor marker for colorectal carcinoma.
Patients and methods: Expression of TK1 in 54 colorectal lesions and 20 colorectal adenoma lesions was detected by immunohistochemistry technique (ABC). Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) was run in parallel.
Results: TK1-Labelling Index (LI) (65%) was higher than PCNA-LI (52%) in the malignant lesions, although not significantly different (p = 0.1717) between them. TK1-LI as well as PCNA-LI showed significant differences between colorectal carcinoma and colorectal adenoma (TK1 p = 0.0005, PCNA p = 0.0005). Both TK1-LI and PCNA were significantly different in respect to tumor stages (TK1 p = 0.0002, PCNA p = 0.0284). However, only TK1-LI showed significant difference in respect to tumor grades (p = 0.014), but not PCNA-LI (p = 0.132).
Conclusion: TK1-LI showed more potential as a proliferating marker in colorectal carcinoma than PCNA-LI, especially for evaluating high-risk tumor grade and advanced stage in colorectal carcinoma.