ABSTRACT
Homeobox b13 (HOXB13) is considered to be a tumor suppressor gene in multiple types of human cancer. The present study aimed to identify the difference in expression of HOXB13 mRNA between gastric cancer (GC) tissues and corresponding non-malignant gastric tissues. The clinical significance of HOXB13 mRNA expression was also assessed in GC and a potential association between HOXB13 mRNA expression and DNA promoter methylation was observed. The expression of HOXB13 mRNA was assessed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and HOXB13 methylation status was assessed by methylation-specific PCR (MSP) in 5 GC cell lines and 85 paired GC and normal gastric tissues. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to assess the survival of patients with GC. HOXB13 mRNA expression was significantly lower in primary GC tissues than in corresponding nonmalignant gastric tissues, and decreased HOXB13 expression was associated with poorer differentiation, lymph node metastasis, invasion depth and Tumor-Node-Metastasis (TNM) stage. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis demonstrated that HOXB13 mRNA expression was a significant prognostic indicator of GC patient survival. Furthermore, MSP revealed that the proportion of GC samples with hypermethylated HOXB13 (60.0%, 51/85) was increased compared with the corresponding nonmalignant gastric tissues (11.8%, 10/85). Decreased HOXB13 mRNA expression was due to DNA hypermethylation as following treatment with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor 5-Aza-dC, HOXB13 expression in the GC MKN-45 cell line was upregulated. The results of the present study indicate that decreased expression of HOXB13 mRNA was associated with tumor differentiation, depth of invasion, lymph node metastases and TNM stage in GC, and it was a significant poor prognostic factor for patients with GC. Aberrant DNA promoter methylation was a crucial reason for the downregulation of HOXB13 mRNA expression.
ABSTRACT
No ideal prognostic model has been applied to clearly identify which suitable high-risk stage II colon cancer patients with negative margins undergoing nonemergent surgery should receive adjuvant chemotherapy routinely. Clinicopathologic and prognostic data of 333 stage II colon cancer patients who underwent D2 or D3 lymphadenectomy during nonemergent surgery were retrospectively analyzed. Four pathologically determined factors, including adjacent organ involvement (RR 2.831, P = 0.001), histologic differentiation (RR 2.151, P = 0.009), lymphovascular invasion (RR 4.043, P < 0.001), and number of lymph nodes retrieved (RR 2.161, P = 0.011), were identified as independent prognostic factors on multivariate analysis. Importantly, a simple cumulative scoring system clearly categorizing prognostic risk groups was generated: risk score = ∑ coefficient' × status (AOI + histological differentiated + lymphovascular invasion + LNs retrieved). Our new prognostic model may provide valuable information on the impact of lymphovascular invasion, as well as powerfully and reliably predicting prognosis and recurrence for this particular cohort of patients. This model may identify suitable patients with an R0 resection who should receive routine postoperative adjuvant therapy and may help clinicians to facilitate individualized treatment. In this study, we aim to provide an ideal and quantifiable method for clinical decision making in the nonemergent surgical treatment of stage II colon cancer. Our prognostic and predictive model should be applied in multicenter, prospective studies with large sample sizes, in order to obtain a more reliable clinical recommendation.
