Dynamic changes of SCGN expression imply different phases of clear cell renal cell carcinoma progression

Abstract

The secretagogin (SCGN) was originally identified as a secreted calcium-binding protein present in the cytoplasm. Recent studies have found that SCGN has a close relationship with cancer. However, its role in the occurrence, progression, and prognosis of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains unclear. In this study, we utilized a mutual authentication method based on public databases and clinical samples to determine the role of SCGN in the progression and prognosis of ccRCC. Firstly, we comprehensively analyzed the expression characteristics of SCGN in ccRCC in several public databases. Subsequently, we systematically evaluated SCGN expression on 252 microarrays of ccRCC tissues from different grades. It was found that SCGN was absent in all the normal kidney tissues and significantly overexpressed in ccRCC tumor tissues. In addition, the expression level of SCGN gradually decreased with an increase in tumor grade, and the percentage of SCGN staining positivity over 50% was 86.7% (13/15) and 73.4% (58/79) in Grade1 and Grade2, respectively, while it was only 8.3% (12/144) in Grade3, and the expression of SCGN was completely absent in Grade4 (0/14) and distant metastasis group (0/4). Additionally, the expression of SCGN was strongly correlated with the patient's prognosis, with the higher the expression levels of SCGN being associated with longer overall survival and disease-free survival of patients. In conclusion, our results suggest that reduced expression of SCGN in cancer cells is correlated with the progression and prognosis of ccRCC.