UbcH10 overexpression is less pronounced in older colorectal cancer patients

Survival is poorer in elderly colorectal cancer (CRC) pa- tients, and it is impaired by lymph node spread and distant metastases. Nevertheless, patients aged below 45 years have lower 5-year survival rates compared with those aged between 45 and 54 years, and comparable to those of patients aged 55 - 74 years. Hence, a different tumor biology may underlie CRC development in persons with different ages. It is difficult to estimate from available statistics the risk of mortality strictly related to CRC itself, rather than to confounding factors. Older patients have more comorbidities and are more frail compared with younger ones, and the role of response to treatment stress and of potential treatment harms in determining mortality ac- cording to age are difficult to be obtained. We recently observed that UbcH10 protein is overexpressed in CRC patients and has an important role in affecting tumor growth and sensitivity to treatments [ 1]. We aimed to assess the expression of UbcH10 in CRC cancer samples as compared with healthy tissue sample from the same patient according to age at surgery, and to investigate the potential implications in the clinical management of young and elderly patients.