Cytoplasmic poly(A) binding protein 4 (PABPC4) is an RNA-processing protein that 
plays an important role in the regulation of gene expression. The aim of this 
study was to investigate the expression pattern and identify the potential 
clinical significance of PABPC4 in colorectal cancer. Immunohistochemical 
analysis revealed that 26.7% (27/101 patients) of primary colorectal tumors and 
60.5% (23/38 patients) of corresponding adjacent, normal tissues showed high 
cytoplasmic expression of PABPC4, whereas expression was absent in 98% (43/44 
patients) of distant, normal tissues. Using Kaplan-Meier analysis, we observed 
that the expression of PABPC4 was significantly correlated with disease-free 
survival and overall survival in patients with stage II and stage III colorectal 
cancer (P=0.022 and P=0.020, respectively). PABPC4 expression was positively 
associated with survival outcome, and may have predictive value in the prognosis 
of patients with colorectal cancer. Taken together, our findings indicate that 
PABPC4 may play a role in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer.