Journal Article

High Expression of Testes-Specific Protease 50 Is Associated with Poor Prognosis in Colorectal Carcinoma

Li, Qianwei, Duan, Guangjie, Xie, Ganfeng, Yan, Xiaochu, Zheng, Lei

2011

Overview

Testes-specific protease 50 (TSP50) is normally expressed in testes and abnormally expressed in breast cancer, but whether TSP50 is expressed in colorectal carcinoma (CRC) and its clinical significance is unclear. We aimed to detect TSP50 expression in CRC, correlate it with clinicopathological factors, and assess its potential diagnostic and prognostic value. TSP50 mRNAs and proteins were detected in 7 CRC cell lines and 8 CRC specimens via RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Immunohistochemical analysis of TSP50, p53 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) with tissue microarrays composed of 95 CRCs, 20 colorectal adenomas and 20 normal colorectal tissues were carried out and correlated with clinicopathological characteristics and disease-specific survival for CRC patients. There was no significant correlation between the expression levels of TSP50 and p53 (P = 0.751) or CEA (P = 0.663). Abundant expression of TSP50 protein was found in CRCs (68.4%) while it was poorly expressed in colorectal adenomas and normal tissues (P<0.0001). Thus, CRCs can be distinguished from them with high specificity (92.5%) and positive predictive value (PPV, 95.6%). The survival of CRC patients with high TSP50 expression was significantly shorter than that of the patients with low TSP50 expression (P = 0.010), specifically in patients who had early-stage tumors (stage I and II; P = 0.004). Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that high TSP50 expression was a statistically significant independent risk factor (hazard ratio  = 2.205, 95% CI = 1.214-4.004, P = 0.009). Our data demonstrate that TSP50 is a potential effective indicator of poor survival for CRC patients, especially for those with early-stage tumors.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adenoma - genetics / Aged / Antigens / Binding sites / Biomarkers / Biomarkers, Tumor - metabolism / Breast cancer / Carcinoembryonic antigen / Carcinoembryonic Antigen - metabolism / Carcinoma / Cell Line, Tumor / Chromatography / Colorectal cancer / Colorectal carcinoma / Colorectal Neoplasms - diagnosis / Colorectal Neoplasms - genetics / Colorectal Neoplasms - metabolism / Colorectal Neoplasms - pathology / Correlation / Deoxyribonucleic acid / Diagnostic systems / DNA / DNA methylation / Gene expression / Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Head & neck cancer / Humans / Immunohistochemistry / Kaplan-Meier Estimate / Mass spectrometry / Medical diagnosis / Medical prognosis / Medicine / Middle Aged / Multivariate Analysis / Nuclear medicine / p53 Protein / Pancreatic cancer / Patients / Polymerase chain reaction / Prognosis / Protease / Proteases / Proteinase / Proteins / Regression Analysis / Risk factors / ROC Curve / Scientific imaging / Serine Endopeptidases - genetics / Serine Endopeptidases - metabolism / Statistical analysis / Survival / Tissue Array Analysis / Tissues / Tumor proteins / Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 - metabolism / Tumors