Our aim was to analyze the relationship between the proliferative activity of cancer cells, assessed using some cell cycle markers, and clinicopathological factors in colorectal carcinoma patients. Immunostaining for Ki-67 (pan-cell cycle marker), cyclin D1 (G1-phase marker) and cyclin A (S- to G2-phase marker), and in situ hybridization for histone H3 mRNA (S-phase marker) were carried out. Immunoreactivity was evaluated semiquantitatively using a scoring system to calculate a staining index (SI). The expression of cyclin D1, histone H3 mRNA and cyclin A correlated significantly with Ki-67 antigen expression. The SIs of Ki-67, cyclin A and histone H3 mRNA were significantly higher in patients > or = 65 years of age than in those < 65. The SIs of Ki-67 and cyclin D1 in poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas were significantly higher than in the other tumor types. Furthermore, the SI of cyclin D1 in carcinomas with lymph node metastasis was higher than in carcinomas without metastasis and was higher in advanced carcinomas than early carcinomas. The overall survival was significantly lower in patients with cyclin A overexpression than in those without. Multivariate analysis indicated that cyclin A overexpression is an independent prognostic factor in patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma. Our results indicate that cyclin D1 overexpression correlates with poor adenocarcinoma differentiation and tumor progression, and cyclin A overexpression is a superior indicator of poor prognosis compared with the other cell cycle markers tested.