Study on the correlation between high expression of Gli1 protein and recurrence and metastasis of colorectal cancer

Abstract

Objective To investigate the expression of Gli1 protein in colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues, and evaluate its association with the prognoses of the patients. Methods A total of 106 patients were enrolled and their clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed. The expression of Gli1 proteins were detected by immunohistochemical staining, and its association with time to recurrence/metastasis (TTR) and overall survival (OS) of the patients were analyzed. Results The positive rate and expression intensity of Gli1 protein in recurrent or metastatic tumor tissues were higher than those in non-recurrent and non-metastatic tumor tissues [86.84% (33/38) vs. 58.82% (40/68), 1.32 scores vs. 0.71 scores, both P 0.05). The positive rates and expression intensities of Gli1 and Ki-67 proteins in CRC tissues were higher than those in adjacent tissues [26.42% (28/106) and 0.27 scores; 4.72%(5/106), 0.05 scores] and normal tissues [3.33% (1/106), 0.03 scores; 0, 0.00 scores] (all P < 0.01). Results of univariate analysis showed that the expression of Gli1 protein, tumor grade and lymph node involvement were significantly associated with TTR, but all of the clinicopathological factors had no obvious association with OS. The association remained significant between the expression of Gli1 protein and TTR in multivariate analysis(P < 0.01). Conclusion The expression of Gli1 protein is an independent prognostic marker of recurrence or metastasis in CRC patients, its high expression implicates a high risk of CRC recurrence or metastasis. Key words: Colorectal neoplasms; Recurrence; Metastasis; Protein, Gli1