Journal Article

TWIST1 Is Expressed in Colorectal Carcinomas and Predicts Patient Survival

Garcia, Jose M., Garcia de Herreros, Antonio, Peña, Cristina, Silva, Javier, Herrera, Mercedes, Muñoz, Concepción, Dominguez, Gemma, Rodriguez, Rufo, Bonilla, Felix, Larriba, Maria Jesus, Gomez, Irene, Garcia, Vanesa

2011

Overview

TWIST1 is a transcription factor that belongs to the family of basic helix-loop-helix proteins involved in epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and invasion processes. The TWIST1 protein possesses oncogenic, drug-resistant, angiogenic and invasive properties, and has been related with several human tumors and other pathologies. Colorectal cancer is one of the tumors in which TWIST1 is over-expressed, but its involvement in the clinical outcome of the disease is still unclear. We tested, by RT-PCR, the expression levels of TWIST1 in normal and tumor paired-sample tissues from a series of 151 colorectal cancer patients, in order to investigate its prognostic value as a tumor marker. TWIST1 expression was restricted to tumor tissues (86.1%) and correlated with lymph node metastasis (LNM). Adjusted analysis showed that the expression levels of TWIST1 correlated with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Importantly, TWIST1 expression levels predicted OS specifically at stages I and II. Moreover, patients with stage II tumors and high TWIST1 levels showed even shorter survival than patients with stage III tumors. These results suggest that TWIST1 expression levels could be a tumor indicator in stage II patients and help select patients at greater risk of poor prognosis who might benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Adjuvant chemotherapy / Aged / Angiogenesis / Biology / Breast cancer / Cancer / Cancer metastasis / Cancer patients / Cell adhesion & migration / Chemotherapy / Colorectal cancer / Colorectal carcinoma / Colorectal Neoplasms - genetics / Colorectal Neoplasms - pathology / Development and progression / Drug resistance / Female / Gene expression / Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Helix-loop-helix proteins / Helix-loop-helix proteins (basic) / Hospitals / Humans / Invasiveness / Kaplan-Meier Estimate / Lymph nodes / Lymphatic Metastasis - genetics / Male / Medical prognosis / Medical research / Medicine / Mesenchyme / Metastases / Metastasis / Mortality / Neoplasm Staging / Nuclear Proteins - genetics / Nuclear Proteins - metabolism / Oncology / Patient outcomes / Patients / Polymerase chain reaction / Prognosis / Proteins / Proteïnes / Regulació genètica / RNA missatger / RNA, Messenger - genetics / RNA, Messenger - metabolism / Studies / Survival / Tissues / Transcription factors / Transcription, Genetic / Tumor markers / Tumors / Twist-Related Protein 1 - genetics / Twist-Related Protein 1 - metabolism / Up-Regulation - genetics