Abstract
Rab1B has recently been reported to be involved in human cancer, but the role of Rab1B in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the expression of Rab1B and MMP9 in CRC by qRT-PCR, immunoblot and immunohistochemistry and analyzed the clinical significance. The results show that Rab1B and MMP9 are increased at both mRNA and protein levels in CRC cell lines and tissues, as measured by qRT-PCR and immunoblotting. The high protein expression of Rab1B and MMP9 in 179 CRC tissues is associated with deep tumor invasion, lymph-node metastasis and advanced TNM stage. Survival analysis indicates that patients with overexpression of Rab1B or MMP9 have significantly worse overall survival and progression-free survival, but better response to chemotherapy than those with low expression of proteins, and that Rab1B is an independent prognostic factor for CRC patients. Furthermore, when Rab1B and MMP9 are combined into a new risk model, it has a remarkably better prediction of prognosis than each protein alone. In conclusion, Rab1B and MMP9 are potential prognostic biomarkers and their combination significantly improves predictive power for survival and chemotherapy response in CRC patients.
Highlights
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in men worldwide
The result showed that the expression levels of Rab1B and MMP9 proteins were significantly increased in 81.8 % (9/11) and 63.6% (7/11) of CRC cell lines, respectively, compared with those in normal cell line (Fig. 1A)
These results indicate that both Rab1B and MMP9 are up-regulated in CRC cells and may have a positive correlation
Summary
The 5-year survival rate of CRC patients is more than 60%, it is still the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the developed countries [1, 2]. The primary reason for the high mortality of CRC is due to its high recurrence and metastasis in approximately half of all the patients, which are extremely difficult to cure [2, 3]. A better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the progression and metastatic process of CRC can lead to new cancer drug target [7]. There is a pressing need for identifying key molecular markers for prediction of recurrence, metastasis and chemotherapeutic outcome to improve the survival of patients with CRC
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