TSPAN1 protein expression:A significant prognostic indicator for patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma

AIM:To determine if TSPAN1 overexpression is associated with clinicopathological and prognostic factors in human colorectal adenocarcinoma.METHODS:Total RNA was extracted in 20 human adenocarcinoma tissues for TSPAN1 mRNA assay by RT-PCR.Eighty-eight specimens of human colorectal adenocarcinoma were surgically removed.TSPAN1 protein levels in cancer tissues were determined by immunohistochemistry using a polyclonal antibody against self-prepared TSPAN1.The correlation between TSPAN1 expression and the clinicopathological factors and the overall survival rate was analyzed by univariate and multivariate assay.RESULTS:TSPAN1 mRNA was detected in 90.0%(18/20) of cancerous tissues.The light density of TSPAN1 mRNA expression levels was 0.89 ± 0.30 in adenocarcinoma by gel-image system.TSPAN1 protein expression was detected in 78.41%(69/88) and weakly expressed in 40% normal colorectal tissues.There were significant differences between colorectal adenocarcinoma and normal control epithelium(P < 0.05).TSPAN1 protein expression in colorectal cancerous tissue was significantly correlated with the histological grade,cell expression PCNA,lymph nodal metastasis and TNM staging of the disease.Patients with TSPAN1 protein overexpression had a significantly shorter survival period than that in patients with TSPAN1 protein negative or weak expression,respectively(P < 0.05).Furthermore,by multivariate analysis,TSPAN1 protein expression demonstrated an independent prognostic factor for human colorectal cancers(P < 0.05,relative risk 0.755;95% confidence interval 0.302-1.208).CONCLUSION:The expression of TSPAN1 gene is increased in colorectal carcinoma,suggesting that TSPAN1 might serve as an independent prognostic factor for the colorectal adenocarcinoma patients.