EREG

Gene Summary

Gene:EREG; epiregulin
Aliases: ER, Ep, EPR
Location:4q13.3
Summary:This gene encodes a secreted peptide hormone and member of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) family of proteins. The encoded protein is a ligand of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the structurally related erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 4 (ERBB4). The encoded protein may be involved in a wide range of biological processes including inflammation, wound healing, oocyte maturation, and cell proliferation. Additionally, the encoded protein may promote the progression of cancers of various human tissues. [provided by RefSeq, Jul 2015]
Databases:OMIM, HGNC, Ensembl, GeneCard, Gene
Protein:proepiregulin
Source:NCBIAccessed: 01 September, 2019

Ontology:

What does this gene/protein do?
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Cancer Overview

Research Indicators

Publications Per Year (1994-2019)
Graph generated 01 September 2019 using data from PubMed using criteria.

Literature Analysis

Mouse over the terms for more detail; many indicate links which you can click for dedicated pages about the topic.

Tag cloud generated 01 September, 2019 using data from PubMed, MeSH and CancerIndex

Specific Cancers (6)

Data table showing topics related to specific cancers and associated disorders. Scope includes mutations and abnormal protein expression.

Note: list is not exhaustive. Number of papers are based on searches of PubMed (click on topic title for arbitrary criteria used).

Latest Publications: EREG (cancer-related)

Erol T, İmamoğlu NE, Aydin B, et al.
Primary tumor resection for initially staged IV breast cancer: An emphasis on programmed death-ligand 1 expression, promoter methylation status, and survival.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(33):e16773 [PubMed] Related Publications
Conventional therapy modalities for advanced breast cancer are problematic, whereas checkpoint blockade immunotherapy has been considered as a promising approach. This study aims to determine programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression and methylation status of PD-L1 promoter in primary tumor tissue and metastatic foci of patients with stage IV breast cancer.Clinicopathological data and survival rates of 57 breast cancer patients, who were initially staged IV, and operated for intact tumors, were retrospectively analyzed. Immunohistochemical analysis of PD-L1 using 57 primary tumors, 33 paired metastatic lymph nodes, and 14 paired distant metastases was performed. Additionally, the methylation rate of the PD-L1 gene promoter region was determined with real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis in 38 samples.Overall PD-L1 expression in primary tumors was 23.1% (12/52). PD-L1 positivity was reduced in lymph nodes by 15.2% (5/33) and in distant metastases by 21.4% (3/14). PD-L1 expression diverged between primary and metastatic foci in a subset of cases (18.2% for lymph node and 33.3% for distant metastasis). In general, the PD-L1 promoter was not methylated, and mean methylation rates were low (min. 0%-max. 21%). We observed no correlation between PD-L1 expression, promoter methylation, and survival.Neither the expression nor the methylation status of PD-L1 in patients, who were presented with stage IV breast cancer and operated for an intact primary tumor, had a statistically significant relation with survival. Discordance in PD-L1 expression between primary tumor and metastasis should be considered during pathological and clinical management of patients who would undergo checkpoint blockade therapy.

Guo Y
Clinical significance of serum MicroRNA-203 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia.
Bioengineered. 2019; 10(1):345-352 [PubMed] Related Publications
This study aimed to detect serum miR-203 expression levels in AML and explore its potential clinical significance. Quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was performed to measure the serum miR-203 levels in 134 patients with AML and 70 healthy controls. The results demonstrated that serum miR-203 expression was significantly reduced in AML patients compared with healthy controls. Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis revealed miR-203 could distinguish AML cases from normal controls. Low serum miR-203 levels were associated with worse clinical features, as well as poorer overall survival and relapse free survival of AML patients. Moreover, multivariate analysis confirmed low serum miR-203 expression to be an independent unfavorable prognostic predictor for AML. The bioinformatics analysis showed that the downstream genes and pathways of miR-203 was closely associated with tumorigenesis. Downregulation of miR-203 in AML cell lines upregulated the expression levels of oncogenic promoters such as CREB1, SRC and HDAC1. Thus, these findings demonstrated that serum miR-203 might be a promising biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of AML.

Buentzel J, Yao S, Elakad O, et al.
Expression and prognostic impact of alpha thalassemia/mental retardation X-linked and death domain-associated protein in human lung cancer.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(31):e16712 [PubMed] Related Publications
Molecular characterization of lung cancer specimens after radical surgery offers additional prognostic information and may help to guide adjuvant therapeutic procedures. The transcriptional regulators alpha thalassemia/mental retardation X-linked (ATRX) and death domain-associated protein (DAXX) have recently been described in different cancer entities as a useful prognostic biomarker. This study was initiated to explore their protein expression patterns and prognostic value in patients with operable lung cancer disease.The protein abundance (in the following text also named protein expression) of ATRX and DAXX were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in 194 samples of squamous cell lung carcinoma (SQCLC), 111 samples of pulmonary adenocarcinoma (AC) and 40 samples of small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The protein levels of ATRX and DAXX were correlated with clinicopathological characteristics and patient outcome.ATRX showed strong protein expression in 16.2% of AC, 11.9% of SQCLC, and 42.5% of SCLC. DAXX was highly expressed in 54.9% of AC, 76.2% of SQCLC, and 82.5% of SCLC. Immunostaining of both ATRX and DAXX were seen in 14.4% of AC, 11.3% of SQCLC, and 42.5% of SCLC. High protein expression of ATRX was a favorable prognostic marker for patients with AC (hazard ratio 0.38, P = .02). Sub-group analyses showed a significant correlation between ATRX and the clinical stage of SQCLC and SCLC. Histological grading and ATRX were also significantly associated in cases of SQCLC.The presence of ATRX and DAXX are correlated with lung cancer histology. Strong ATRX protein expression is associated with a significantly longer overall survival in patients with AC.

Akashi M, Hisaka T, Sakai H, et al.
Expression of Matrix Metalloproteinases in Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm of the Pancreas.
Anticancer Res. 2019; 39(8):4485-4490 [PubMed] Related Publications
BACKGROUND/AIM: Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) has a variety of histological and morphological appearances. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have been considered to be associated with tumor progression or poor prognosis. The aim of this study was to elucidate the molecular basis of IPMN variation in different types of lesions.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The expression of MMP-1,2,7,9 in 51 cases of IPMN were investigated. The MMP score was calculated as the sum of the score of staining distribution and the score of the intensity staining.
RESULTS: MMP scores were correlated with histological grade, histological subtype, and type of invasion. MMP high expression groups (MMP score ≥5) had worse prognosis than low-expression groups.
CONCLUSION: MMP expression varied between different types of IPMN, a result supporting differences in molecular basis of malignancies. These considerations may be helpful for optimal management or treatment according to various types of IPMN.

Amisaki M, Yagyu T, Uchinaka EI, et al.
Prognostic Value of DEPDC1 Expression in Tumor and Non-tumor Tissue of Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma.
Anticancer Res. 2019; 39(8):4423-4430 [PubMed] Related Publications
BACKGROUND/AIM: To evaluate the impact of DEPDC1 expression on patient prognosis after hepatic resection for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
PATIENTS AND METHODS: We reviewed data from 75 patients who underwent hepatic resection for HCC between 2004 and 2013. Recurrence at 2 years following resection, which mainly included metastatic recurrence, was defined as late recurrence.
RESULTS: DEPDC1 was up-regulated in HCC tissue and in non-tumor tissue of patients with HCC compared to normal liver (p<0.01 and p<0.01, respectively). High expression of DEPDC1 was associated with poor overall, disease-specific, and disease-free survival (p=0.02, p<0.01, and p<0.01, respectively). High DEPDC1 expression was an independent predictor of death and recurrence (p=0.03 and p<0.01, respectively). High expression of DEPDC1 in non-tumor liver was an independent risk factor for late recurrence (p=0.04).
CONCLUSION: High expression of DEPDC1 in tumor tissue appears to be associated with tumor progression and poor prognosis.

Dix D
Human Carcinogenesis: The Role of Age and Gender.
Anticancer Res. 2019; 39(8):4385-4391 [PubMed] Related Publications
BACKGROUND/AIM: To identify the reason for age and gender differences in cancer risk.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: Age-standardized incidence rates for 17 cancer types were compared between genders in 50 populations. For each cancer type, the female/male rate ratio was listed in fixed order of population. Correlation coefficients were calculated between these lists in all pairwise combinations. For each population, the female/male rate ratio was listed in fixed order of cancer. Correlation coefficients were calculated between lists in all pairwise combinations.
RESULTS: Only four pairwise combinations for cancer type gave a correlation coefficient greater than 0.700. For each population, the lowest correlation coefficient was 0.950.
CONCLUSION: The reason for the differences in risk of cancer varies with each type of cancer, but remains fixed in all populations. It is suspected that species-specific genes control stem cell telomere dynamics in a fixed strategy at rates that vary among tissues and between genders.

Zhu X, Tan J, Liang Z, Zhou M
Comprehensive analysis of competing endogenous RNA network and 3-mRNA signature predicting survival in papillary renal cell cancer.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(30):e16672 [PubMed] Related Publications
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) can act as competing endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) to exert significant roles in regulating the expression of mRNAs by sequestering and binding miRNAs. To elucidate the functional roles and regulatory mechanism of lncRNAs in papillary renal cell cancer (pRCC), we conducted a comprehensive analysis of ceRNA network and constructed a mRNA signature to predict prognosis of pRCC.We collected mRNAs and lncRNAs expression profiles of 289 pRCC samples and 32 normal renal tissues, and miRNA expression profiles of 292 pRCC samples and 34 normal samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Differential expressions of RNAs were evaluated by the "edgeR" package in R. Functional enrichment analysis of DEmRNA was performed by DAVID 6.8 and KEGG, while PPI network of top 200 DEmRNAs was conducted using the STRING database. The univariate and multivariate Cox regression were conducted to figure out the candidate DEmRNAs with predictive values in prognosis. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve estimation was performed to achieve the area under the curve (AUC) of the ROC curve to judge mRNA-associated prognosic model. A ceRNA network was established relying on the basis of combination of lncRNA-miRNA interactions and miRNA-mRNA interactions.A total of 1928 DEmRNAs, 981 DElncRNAs, and 52 DEmiRNAs were identified at significance level of |log2Fold Change |>2 and adjusted P-value < .01. A 3-mRNA signatures consisting of ERG, RRM2, and EGF was constructed to predict survival in pRCC. Moreover, a pRCC-associated ceRNA network was constructed, with 57 lncRNAs, 11 miRNAs, and 28 mRNAs.Our study illustrated the regulatory mechanism of ceRNA network in papillary renal cancer. The identified mRNA signatures could be used to predict survival of pRCC.

Liu JB, Yan YJ, Shi J, et al.
Upregulation of microRNA-191 can serve as an independent prognostic marker for poor survival in prostate cancer.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(29):e16193 [PubMed] Related Publications
MicroRNA-191 (miR-191) has been identified as being upregulated in several types of cancers, and plays the role of oncogene. The expression of miR-191 has been found to be upregulated in prostate cancer tissues as well as cell lines. In this study, we analyzed the correlation of miR-191 expression with clinicopathologic factors and prognosis in prostate cancer.Prostate cancer tissue samples and adjacent normal prostate tissue samples were collected from 146 patients who underwent laparoscopic radical prostatectomy between April 2013 and March 2018. Student two-tailed t-test was used for comparisons of 2 independent groups. The relationships between miR-191 expression and different clinicopathological characteristics were evaluated using the Chi-squared test. Kaplan-Meier survival plots and log-rank tests were used to assess the differences in overall survival of the different subgroups of prostate cancer patients.miR-191 expression was significantly higher in prostate cancer tissues compared with normal adjacent prostate tissues (P < .001). miR-191 expression was observed to be significantly correlated with Gleason score (P < .001), pelvic lymph node metastasis (P = .006), bone metastases (P < .001), and T stage (P = .005). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with higher levels of miR-191 had significantly poorer survival than those with lower expression of this miRNA in prostate cancer patients (log rank test, P = .011). Multivariate analysis revealed that miR-191 expression (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.311, 95% confidence interval, [CI]: 1.666-9.006; P = .027) was independently associated with the overall survival of prostate cancer patients.Our results demonstrated that miR-191 might serve as an independent prognostic indicator for prostate cancer patients.

Yang X, Li X, Quan X, et al.
Association Between Two Polymorphisms in the Promoter Region of miR-143/miR-145 and the Susceptibility of Lung Cancer in Northeast Chinese Nonsmoking Females.
DNA Cell Biol. 2019; 38(8):814-823 [PubMed] Related Publications
Lung cancer is known to cause high mortality and morbidity. The study aimed to explore the association between rs3733845 and rs3733846 polymorphisms in the promoter region of miR-143/145 and the risk of lung cancer among 575 nonsmoking cases and 575 cancer-free controls in a Chinese female population. We genotyped two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the promoter region of miR-143/145 in 575 cases and 575 controls using TaqMan allelic discrimination method. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess the association between polymorphisms in the promoter of miR-143/miR-145 and risk of lung cancer females. Crossover analysis was used to explore the interaction between the two SNPs and environmental risk factors (cooking oil fume exposure and passive smoking exposure). The results showed that both rs3733845 and rs3733846 polymorphisms were associated with an increased lung adenocarcinoma risk in dominant model (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.329, 95% confidence intervals [CIs] = 1.026-1.723,

Weijin F, Zhibin X, Shengfeng Z, et al.
The clinical significance of PYCR1 expression in renal cell carcinoma.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(28):e16384 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase 1 (PYCR1) is an enzyme involved in cell metabolism and is upregulated in cancer. However, the correlations of PYCR1 expression with the clinicopathological features and prognosis of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to identify the expression of PYCR1 and its clinical relevance in RCC patients.PYCR1 mRNA expression differences between RCC and the adjacent normal renal tissues were assessed using the Cancer Genome Atlas database (TCGA). Subsequently, the expression of PYCR1 mRNA and protein were evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and immunochemistry using 30 paired frozen samples of RCC and the adjacent normal renal tissues. The protein expression of PYCR1 was evaluated by immunostaining formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of RCC samples from 96 patients who underwent radical nephrectomy, and its relationship with clinical features were analyzed. Nonpaired t tests were used to statistically analyze the differences between the 2 groups. Cox univariable and multivariable analyses of overall survival (OS) among RCC patients were performed.The expression of PYCR1 mRNA was significantly upregulated in RCC tissues compared to adjacent normal renal tissues in the TCGA database (P < .01). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value was 0.748. The expression of PYCR1 mRNA and protein was significantly upregulated in RCC compared with that in paired normal renal tissues (P < .01). Higher PYCR1 levels were associated with metastasis (P < .01). Kaplan-Meier survival curves indicated that higher PYCR1 expression was correlated with poorer OS. Therefore, PYCR1 may act as a novel prognostic marker and therapeutic target in the diagnosis and treatment of RCC.

Ramezani S, Sharafshah A, Mirzanejad L, Hadavi M
Association of PARP1 rs4653734, rs907187 and rs1136410 variants with breast cancer risk among Iranian women.
Gene. 2019; 712:143954 [PubMed] Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Breast cancer (BC) is the highest cause of mortality among female cancer patients. In some cases, BC is due to Poly [ADP-ribose] polymerase 1 (PARP1) gene dysregulation, which has been involved in various important cellular processes. Among Iranian women, the association between PARP1 polymorphisms and BC was never studied before so in this case-control study, the genetic association of three SNPs (rs1136410, rs907187 and rs4653734) was analyzed with susceptibility to BC.
METHODS: The study subjects were 386 Iranian females divided into 186 patients and 200 healthy controls. The genotypes of PARP1 variants were detected using ARMS and a combined ARMS-RFLP PCR method.
RESULTS: The results showed that Carriers of CG and GG genotypes of the variant rs4653734 were at higher risk of BC compared with wild-type carriers (CC) and this variant was statistically significant under a recessive model of inheritance. Moreover, rs907187 was related to increased BC risk in the CC and GG genotypes under dominant and recessive models of inheritance. The G allele frequency of rs4653734 and rs907187 was higher in breast cancer patients than in normal subjects. No association was detected between rs1136410 and susceptibility to BC among studied groups. Furthermore, A-G-C haplotype was linked to an increased BC risk, whereas A-C-C and A-C-G haplotypes were related to a decreased risk of BC. In Silico predictions suggested that rs907187 affects E2F and E2F-4 transcription factors binding site.
CONCLUSIONS: The current study suggests that rs907187 and rs4653734 have remarkable associations with BC risk among Iranian women.

Zhou Q, Ren J, Hou J, et al.
Co-expression network analysis identified candidate biomarkers in association with progression and prognosis of breast cancer.
J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2019; 145(9):2383-2396 [PubMed] Related Publications
PURPOSE: Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies among females, and its prognosis is affected by a complex network of gene interactions. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis was used to construct free-scale gene co-expression networks and to identify potential biomarkers for breast cancer progression.
METHODS: The gene expression profiles of GSE42568 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus database. RNA-sequencing data and clinical information of breast cancer from TCGA were used for validation.
RESULTS: A total of ten modules were established by the average linkage hierarchical clustering. We identified 58 network hub genes in the significant module (R
CONCLUSIONS: AGO2, CDC20, CDCA5, MCM10, MYBL2, and TTK were identified as candidate biomarkers for further basic and clinical research on breast cancer based on co-expression analysis.

Chuo D, Liu F, Chen Y, Yin M
LncRNA MIR503HG is downregulated in Han Chinese with colorectal cancer and inhibits cell migration and invasion mediated by TGF-β2.
Gene. 2019; 713:143960 [PubMed] Related Publications
In this study we investigated the role of lncRNA MIR503HG in colorectal cancer (CRC). We found that MIR503HG was downregulated and TGF-β2 was upregulated in CRC included in this study. Low levels of MIR503HG were associated with poor survival of CRC patients within 5 years after admission. MIR503HG and TGF-β2 were inversely correlated in CRC tissues, and in CRC cells, MIR503HG overexpression was accompanied by TGF-β2 downregulation, while TGF-β2 overexpression did not affect MIR503HG. TGF-β2 overexpression mediated the increased migration and invasion rates of CRC cells. MIR503HG overexpression mediated the decreased migration and invasion rates of CRC cells. Moreover, TGF-β2 overexpression reduced the effects of MIR503HG overexpression. Therefore, MIR503HG overexpression inhibits CRC cell migration and invasion mediated by TGF-β2.

Silva OB, Correia NAA, de Barros FT, et al.
3' untranslated region A>C (rs3212227) polymorphism of Interleukin 12B gene as a potential risk factor for Hodgkin's lymphoma in Brazilian children and adolescents.
Tumour Biol. 2019; 41(7):1010428319860400 [PubMed] Related Publications
Interleukin 12 plays an important role in immunoregulation between the T helper 1/T helper 2 lymphocytes and in the antiviral and antitumor immune response. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible association between the interleukin 12B polymorphism rs3212227 and the risk to develop Hodgkin's lymphoma in childhood and adolescents. A total of 100 patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma and a group of 181 healthy controls were selected at random from a forensic laboratory of the University of Pernambuco. The AA genotype was detected in the controls (53.04%) and the AC genotype was found in the patients (54%). The AC genotype showed an association with the development of Hodgkin's lymphoma (odds ratio = 2.091, 95% confidence interval = 1.240-3.523, p = 0.007). When AC + CC genotypes were analyzed together, an increase in risk of 1.9 times more chances for HL development could be observed (odds ratio = 1.923, 95% confidence interval = 1.166-3.170, p = 0.014). However, there was no association between the AC and CC genotypes of the interleukin 12B polymorphism with the clinical risk group (p = 0.992, p = 0.648, respectively). Our results suggest that the presence of the C allele may be contributing to the development of Hodgkin's lymphoma in children and adolescents.

Wang Y, Yang W, Liu T, et al.
Over-expression of SOX8 predicts poor prognosis in colorectal cancer: A retrospective study.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(27):e16237 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Aberrant expression of SRY-box 8 (SOX8) is closely correlated with the development and progression of many types of cancers in human. Limited studies report the relationship between SOX8 expression and overall survival in colorectal cancer (CRC). This study aimed to collect the pathological tissues and clinical data in order to analyze the relationship between SOX8 expression and clinicopathological parameters and prognosis of CRC patients. Tissue microarrays were constructed from 424 primary CRC patients with clinicopathological information and follow-up data. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed on tissue microarrays to explore the relationship between SOX8 expression and clinicopathological information and patient's prognosis. The expression of SOX8 was higher in CRC tissues than that in non-tumor adjacent tissues (NATs, P <.001). High expression of SOX8 was associated with tumor stage (P = .04) and shorter overall survival (OS) after operation of patients (P = .004). Subsequently, univariate COX analysis identified that high expression of SOX8 (P = .004), differentiation (P = .006), distant metastasis (P <.001), tumor stage (P = .003), and higher rate of lymph node metastasis (P <.001), all significantly predicted decrease in OS. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that distant metastasis (P <.001), high SOX8 expression, (P = .013) and lymph node metastasis (P <.001) were independent poor prognostic factors in CRC patients. This study showed that SOX8 is over-expressed in patients with high T stage, which affects the outcome of prognosis in CRC patients. High expression of SOX8 usually has a poor independent prognostic factor for CRC.

Zou B, Wang D, Xu K, et al.
Prognostic value of long non-coding RNA plasmacytoma variant translocation1 in human solid tumors: A meta-analysis.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(27):e16087 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Plasmacytoma variant translocation 1 (PVT1) is highly expressed in a variety of cancer tissues and is related to the clinicopathological features and prognosis. However, the prognostic value of PVT1 is still controversial. Therefore, this systematic evaluation and meta-analysis were performed to evaluate the relationship between PVT1 expression and clinicopathological features.PubMed, EMBASE, Web of science, and Cochrane library databases were searched for literature collection according to inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria. The pooled hazard ratios (HRs) or odds ratios (ORs) were used to evaluate the association between PVT1 expression and overall survival, tumor size, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis.A total of 39 articles including 3974 patients were included in the study. The results showed that the expression of PVT1 was closely related to the overall survival rate of cancers (HR = 1.64, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.50-1.78, P < .000001). Subgroup analysis showed that the high expression of PVT1 was closely related to the low overall survival rate of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma, breast cancer, cervical cancer, colon cancer, epithelial ovarian cancer, gastric cancer, lung cancer, and osteosarcoma. In addition, the high expression of PVT1 was positively correlated with tumor size (OR = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.14-1.96, P = .004), TNM stage (OR = 3.39, 95% CI: 2.73-4.20, P < .00001), lymph node metastasis (OR = 2.60, 95% CI: 1.76-3.84, P < .00001), and distant metastasis (OR = 2.94, 95% CI: 1.90-4.56, P < .00001).PVT1 could serve as a marker for the size, TNM stage, metastasis, and prognosis of different type of cancers.

Zhou X, Jiao D, Dou M, et al.
Association of glutathione-S-transferase p1 gene promoter methylation and the incidence of prostate cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2019; 145(8):1939-1948 [PubMed] Related Publications
OBJECTIVE: Some studies have shown that the methylation status of the GSTP1 gene promoter is related to the incidence of prostate cancer, but this finding is still controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between glutathione-S-transferase p1 (GSTP1) promoter methylation and the incidence of prostate cancer.
METHODS: The Medline, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched from their inception to February 22, 2019. According to the inclusion criteria, studies of the association between the methylation status of the GSTP1 gene promoter and prostate cancer were included. The difference in the incidence of GSTP1 promoter methylation in tissues, blood, or urine between patients with prostate cancer and those without prostate cancer were compared, and the results were expressed as the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI). The pooled OR of each study was estimated using a fixed-effects model or a random-effects model to generate forest plots.
RESULTS: Ultimately, 15 studies (1540 samples) were included. The estimated effect from our meta-analysis showed that the incidence of GSTP1 promoter methylation was higher in patients with prostate cancer than in those without prostate cancer (OR 18.58, 95% CI 9.60-35.95, P = 0.000). GSTP1 promoter methylation was highly correlated with the incidence of prostate cancer.
CONCLUSIONS: Methylation of the GSTP1 promoter may increase the risk of prostate cancer. This study may provide a strategic direction for prostate cancer research. Pending validation of these findings, the methylation of the GSTP1 promoter may be a potential biomarker to diagnose prostate cancer.

Chen H, Ji L, Liu X, Zhong J
Correlation between the rs7101 and rs1063169 polymorphisms in the FOS noncoding region and susceptibility to and prognosis of colorectal cancer.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(26):e16131 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: The FOS gene is located on human chromosome 14q21-31 and encodes the nuclear oncoprotein c-Fos. This study analyzed the correlation between the FOS noncoding region rs7101 and rs1063169 polymorphisms and colorectal cancer susceptibility and prognosis.
METHODS: We analyzed the FOS genotypes in 432 colorectal cancer patients and 315 healthy subjects by PCR/Sanger sequencing. Survival was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis. Western blot was used to detect the expression of c-Fos protein in cancer tissues and adjacent tissues in colorectal cancer patients with different genotypes.
RESULTS: The presence of a T allele at rs7101 and a T allele at rs1063169 in FOS carried a higher risk of colorectal cancer [adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 1.237, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) = 1.131-1.346, P ≤ .001 and adjusted OR = 1.218, 95% CI = 1.111-1.327, P ≤ .001, respectively]. c-Fos protein levels were significantly higher in variant cancer tissues than in normal mucosa tissues (P < .05), and c-Fos proteins levels were also higher in homozygous variant cancer tissues than in heterozygous variant cancer tissues. The 3-year survival rate of patients with wild-type FOS was higher than that of patients with variant FOS (P < .05).
CONCLUSION: The rs7101 and rs1063169 polymorphisms in the noncoding region of FOS are associated with the risk of developing colorectal cancer and the progression of colorectal cancer, which may be because the mutation enhances the expression of c-Fos protein to promote the incidence and development of colorectal cancer.

Park CS, Eom DW, Ahn Y, et al.
Can heme oxygenase-1 be a prognostic factor in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma?
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(26):e16084 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) is an important catalytic enzyme in heme degradation, which increases during stressful conditions. It plays a major role in antioxidative and antiapoptotic processes and is associated with tumor growth and metastasis.This study aimed to evaluate the degree of HO-1 expressions in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) surgical specimens and the correlation between HO-1 expression and patient prognosis. Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded HCC tissue samples (n = 96) were included in the analysis, and the expression of HO-1 was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining. We reviewed clinical features of patients and evaluated the prognostic role of HO-1 in patient survival and recurrence.Positive HO-1 expression was identified in 43 cases (44.8%) and was frequently found in patients with advanced histology (Edmondson-Steiner [E-S] grade 2, 3, 4), α-fetoprotein (AFP) level of more than 200 IU/mL, and the presence of microvascular and capsular invasion (P < .05). In the univariate analysis, the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of patients with HO-1-positive HCC were not statistically different from those with HO-1-negative HCC. Moreover, HO-1 expression was not associated with patient survival and recurrence based on the multivariate analysis. In the subgroup analysis of patients without preoperative transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) (n = 61), HO-1 was not also associated with tumor recurrence (P = .681).The clinical implication of HO-1 activity is controversial in various malignancies. However, HO-1 expression did not seem to influence the prognosis of HCC patients.

Jiang Q, Zhang NL, Ma DY, et al.
Efficacy and safety of apatinib plus docetaxel as the second or above line treatment in advanced nonsquamous NSCLC: A multi center prospective study.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(26):e16065 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Apatinib is an oral small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2). Some clinical trials have demonstrated that apatinib is efficacious against advanced nonsquamous NSCLC.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to probe efficacy and safety of apatinib plus docetaxel, as the second or above line treatment, in advanced nonsquamous NSCLC.
DESIGN: Multicenter, prospective, single arm study.
SETTING: Three teaching hospitals centers in the Sichuan.
PARTICIPANTS: Fourteen patients with stage IVA/B nonsquamous NSCLC had previously received at least 1 platinum-based chemotherapy regimen.
INTERVENTION: Patients who were enrolled between November 2016 and January 2018 were given docetaxel (75 mg/m, i.v., d1) plus oral apatinib (250 mg/d), 4 weeks as one cycle, until disease progression or intolerance to adverse events (AE).
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS). The secondary endpoints comprised objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), overall survival (OS), and AE incidence rate.
RESULTS: All patients carried adenocarcinoma by pathological type. The median follow-up duration was 9.76 months. Out of 14 cases, 12 were evaluable, showing ORR of 33.33%, DCR of 66.67%, DCR of 50% in cases with brain metastasis, median PFS of 2.92 months (95% CI: 1.38-4.48), and 6-month OS of 80%. Primary AEs encompassed: leukopenia in 7 cases (58.33%), hand-foot skin reaction in 5 cases (41.67%), and diarrhea in 4 cases (33.33%). Among them, grade 3 AEs were: leukopenia in 4 cases (33.33%), and hand-foot skin reaction in 1 case (8.33%). No grade 4/5 AEs were reported. Univariate and multivariate analysis were conducted respectively for PFS and OS. These factors encompassed: gender, age, gene mutations, clinical stage, ECOG scores, quantity of metastatic foci, brain metastasis, and hand-foot skin reaction. Results demonstrated zero risk factors for PFS or OS.
CONCLUSION: Apatinib plus docetaxel, as the second or above line treatment, is effective and safe against advanced nonsquamous NSCLC, with good tolerance profile.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: NCT03416231.

Wang J, Xu R, Yuan H, et al.
Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals novel gene expression signatures of trastuzumab treatment in HER2+ breast cancer: A pilot study.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(26):e15872 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer accounts for ∼20% of invasive breast cancers and is associated with poor prognostics. The recent outcome of HER2+ breast cancer treatment has been vastly improved owing to the application of antibody-targeted therapies. Trastuzumab (Herceptin) is a monoclonal antibody designed to target HER2+ breast cancer cells. In addition to improved survival in the adjuvant treatment of HER2+ breast cancer, trastuzumab treatment has also been associated with cardiotoxicity side effect. However, the molecular mechanisms of trastuzumab action and trastuzumab-mediated cardiotoxicity are still not fully understood. Previous research utilized bulk transcriptomics analysis to study the underlining mechanisms, which relied on averaging molecular signals from bulk tumor samples and might have overlooked key expression features within breast cancer tumor. In contrast to previous research, we compared the single cancer cell level transcriptome profile between trastuzumab-treated and nontreated patients to reveal a more in-depth transcriptome profile. A total of 461 significantly differential expressed genes were identified, including previously defined and novel gene expression signatures. In addition, we found that trastuzumab-enhanced MGP gene expression could be used as prognostics marker for longer patient survival in breast invasive carcinoma patients, and validated our finding using TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) breast cancer dataset. Moreover, our study revealed a 48-gene expression signature that is associated with cell death of cardiomyocytes, which could be used as early biomarkers for trastuzumab-mediated cardiotoxicity. This work is the first study to look at single cell level transcriptome profile of trastuzumab-treated patients, providing a new understanding of the molecular mechanism(s) of trastuzumab action and trastuzumab-induced cardiotoxicity side effects.

Ali H, AbdelMageed M, Olsson L, et al.
Utility of G protein-coupled receptor 35 expression for predicting outcome in colon cancer.
Tumour Biol. 2019; 41(6):1010428319858885 [PubMed] Related Publications
The utility of mRNA and protein determinations of G protein-coupled receptor 35, that is, GPR35a (GPR35 V1) and GPR35b (GPR35 V2/3), as indicators of outcome for colon cancer patients after curative surgery was investigated. Expression levels of V1 and V2/3 GPR35, carcinoembryonic antigen and CXCL17 mRNAs were assessed in primary tumours and regional lymph nodes of 121 colon cancer patients (stage I-IV), colon cancer cell lines and control colon epithelial cells using real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Expression of G protein-coupled receptor 35 was investigated by two-colour immunohistochemistry and immunomorphometry. GPR35 V2/3 mRNA, but not V1 mRNA, was expressed in colon cancer cell lines, primary colon tumours and control colon epithelial cells. Haematoxylin and eosin positive (H&E(+)), but not H&E(-), lymph nodes expressed high levels of GPR35 V2/3 mRNA (

Mo M, Liu S, Ma X, et al.
A liver-specific lncRNA, FAM99B, suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma progression through inhibition of cell proliferation, migration, and invasion.
J Cancer Res Clin Oncol. 2019; 145(8):2027-2038 [PubMed] Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Increasing evidence has shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are important in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development and progression. In this study, we aim to evaluate the expression of lncRNA FAM99B and its biological function in HCC.
METHODS: The expression level of FAM99B in HCC was assessed based on data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), verified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). HCCLM3 was transfected with lentivirus containing full-length FAM99B to obtain stable overexpressing cell line. Cell Counting Kit 8, clone formation, and transwell assays were used to investigate the effects of FAM99B in HCC progression. In addition, Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, and PANTHER pathway analyses were conducted to investigate the underlying molecular mechanisms.
RESULTS: FAM99B was found to be downregulated in HCC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues based on TCGA, GEO, and qRT-PCR data. Our results revealed that downregulated FAM99B was significantly associated with vascular invasion, advanced histologic grade, and T stage. Kaplan-Meier analysis using TCGA data indicated that decreased FAM99B levels were significantly associated with poor overall survival in patients with HCC. Moreover, overexpression of FAM99B significantly inhibited cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in vitro. Pathway analyses showed that the co-expressed genes of FAM99B mainly participated in the pathways "Metabolic pathways" and "Blood coagulation".
CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that FAM99B may serve as a tumor suppressor in HCC and may provide a promising therapy target for patients with HCC.

Lopes MB, Casimiro S, Vinga S
Twiner: correlation-based regularization for identifying common cancer gene signatures.
BMC Bioinformatics. 2019; 20(1):356 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: Breast and prostate cancers are typical examples of hormone-dependent cancers, showing remarkable similarities at the hormone-related signaling pathways level, and exhibiting a high tropism to bone. While the identification of genes playing a specific role in each cancer type brings invaluable insights for gene therapy research by targeting disease-specific cell functions not accounted so far, identifying a common gene signature to breast and prostate cancers could unravel new targets to tackle shared hormone-dependent disease features, like bone relapse. This would potentially allow the development of new targeted therapies directed to genes regulating both cancer types, with a consequent positive impact in cancer management and health economics.
RESULTS: We address the challenge of extracting gene signatures from transcriptomic data of prostate adenocarcinoma (PRAD) and breast invasive carcinoma (BRCA) samples, particularly estrogen positive (ER+), and androgen positive (AR+) triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), using sparse logistic regression. The introduction of gene network information based on the distances between BRCA and PRAD correlation matrices is investigated, through the proposed twin networks recovery (twiner) penalty, as a strategy to ensure similarly correlated gene features in two diseases to be less penalized during the feature selection procedure.
CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis led to the identification of genes that show a similar correlation pattern in BRCA and PRAD transcriptomic data, and are selected as key players in the classification of breast and prostate samples into ER+ BRCA/AR+ TNBC/PRAD tumor and normal tissues, and also associated with survival time distributions. The results obtained are supported by the literature and are expected to unveil the similarities between the diseases, disclose common disease biomarkers, and help in the definition of new strategies for more effective therapies.

Yoo SK, Song YS, Lee EK, et al.
Integrative analysis of genomic and transcriptomic characteristics associated with progression of aggressive thyroid cancer.
Nat Commun. 2019; 10(1):2764 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) and advanced differentiated thyroid cancers (DTCs) show fatal outcomes, unlike DTCs. Here, we demonstrate mutational landscape of 27 ATCs and 86 advanced DTCs by massively-parallel DNA sequencing, and transcriptome of 13 ATCs and 12 advanced DTCs were profiled by RNA sequencing. TERT, AKT1, PIK3CA, and EIF1AX were frequently co-mutated with driver genes (BRAF

Han PZ, Cao DH, Zhang XL, et al.
Association between TP53 gene codon72 polymorphism and prostate cancer risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Medicine (Baltimore). 2019; 98(25):e16135 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
BACKGROUND: TP53 gene polymorphism could increase risks of several kinds of cancer. But it remained controversial whether TP53 gene codon72 polymorphism was associated with the susceptibility to prostate cancer. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis that evaluated the association between TP53 gene codon72 polymorphism and prostate cancer risk.
METHOD: A comprehensive research was performed from PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) up to December 31, 2018. A random effect model was used to evaluate the effect of the outcome. The statistical analyses were performed with Review Manager 5.3.0 and Stata 14.0. The sensitivity analysis and publication bias tests were also performed to confirm the reliability of this meta-analysis.
RESULTS: 22 studies included 3146 cases and 4010 controls were involved in this meta-analysis. Overall, no association was observed between TP53 gene codon72 polymorphism and prostate cancer risk (Arg vs Pro: odds ratio [OR] = 1.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.98-1.30; ArgArg vs ProPro: OR = 1.26, 95% CI = 0.90-1.75; ProPro vs ArgArg+ ArgPro: OR = 1.17, 95% CI = 0.86-1.57; ArgPro+ ProPro vs ArgArg: OR = 1.21, 95% CI = 0.97-1.51). Subgroup analyses, based on ethnicity, source of control and Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) status, showed consistent results.
CONCLUSION: The meta-analysis we performed showed that there was no association of TP53 gene codon72 polymorphism with prostate cancer risk.

Chen S, Yang C, Sun C, et al.
miR-21-5p Suppressed the Sensitivity of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells to Cisplatin by Targeting FASLG.
DNA Cell Biol. 2019; 38(8):865-873 [PubMed] Related Publications
Accumulating evidence has suggested that microRNAs play important roles in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and are involved in drug resistance. miR-21-5p was overexpressed in a variety of cancers and promoted the tumorigenesis; however, the function of miR-21-5p in HCC still remains unknown. In this study, our results showed that miR-21-5p was highly expressed in HCC tissues and cell lines. Notably, the level of miR-21-5p was relatively higher in cisplatin (DDP)-resistant HCC patients. Overexpression of miR-21-5p attenuated the inhibitory effect of DDP on the proliferation and apoptosis of HCC cells. Mechanistically, the luciferase report assay-identified FAS ligand (FASLG) was a direct target of miR-21-5p. Overexpression of miR-21-5p decreased both the mRNA and protein levels of FASLG in HCC cells. FASLG was downregulated in HCC tissues and was significantly negatively correlated with the expression of miR-21-5p. Restoring the expression of FASLG upregulated the chemosensitivity of HCC cells expressing miR-21-5p. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that miR-21-5p targeted FASLG and suppressed the sensitivity of HCC cells to DDP treatment.

Odin E, Sondén A, Carlsson G, et al.
Folate pathway genes linked to mitochondrial biogenesis and respiration are associated with outcome of patients with stage III colorectal cancer.
Tumour Biol. 2019; 41(6):1010428319846231 [PubMed] Related Publications
5-fluorouracil in combination with the folate leucovorin is the cornerstone in treatment of colorectal cancer. Transport of leucovorin into cells, and subsequent metabolic action, require expression of several genes. The aim was to analyze if tumoral expression of genes putatively involved in leucovorin transport, polyglutamation, or metabolism was associated with outcome of patients with stage III colorectal cancer treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. A total of 363 stage III colorectal cancer patients who received adjuvant bolus 5-fluorouracil + leucovorin alone, or in combination with oxaliplatin according to Nordic bolus regimes were included. Expression of 11 folate pathway genes was determined in tumors using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and related to disease-free survival. The median follow-up time was 5 years. During follow-up, 114 (31%) patients suffered from recurrent disease. A high tumoral expression of the genes

Chen H, Chong W, Teng C, et al.
The immune response-related mutational signatures and driver genes in non-small-cell lung cancer.
Cancer Sci. 2019; 110(8):2348-2356 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy has achieved remarkable clinical benefit in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but our understanding of biomarkers that predict the response to ICB remain obscure. Here we integrated somatic mutational profile and clinicopathologic information from 113 NSCLC patients treated by ICB (CTLA-4/PD-1). High tumor mutation burden (TMB) and neoantigen burden were identified significantly associated with improved efficacy in NSCLC immunotherapy. Furthermore, we identified apolipoprotein B mRNA editing enzyme, catalytic polypeptide-like (APOBEC) mutational signature was markedly associated with responding of ICB therapy (log-rank test, P = .001; odds ratio (OR), 0.18 [95% CI, 0.06-0.50], P < .001). The association with progression-free survival remained statistically significant after controlling for age, sex, histological type, smoking, PD-L1 expression, hypermutation, smoking signature and mismatch repair (MMR) (HR, 0.30 [95% CI, 0.12-0.75], P = .010). Combined high TMB with APOBEC signature preferably predict immunotherapy responders in NSCLC cohort. The CIBERSORT algorithm revealed that high APOBEC mutational activity samples were associated with increased infiltration of CD4 memory activated T cells, CD8

Bell CC, Fennell KA, Chan YC, et al.
Targeting enhancer switching overcomes non-genetic drug resistance in acute myeloid leukaemia.
Nat Commun. 2019; 10(1):2723 [PubMed] Free Access to Full Article Related Publications
Non-genetic drug resistance is increasingly recognised in various cancers. Molecular insights into this process are lacking and it is unknown whether stable non-genetic resistance can be overcome. Using single cell RNA-sequencing of paired drug naïve and resistant AML patient samples and cellular barcoding in a unique mouse model of non-genetic resistance, here we demonstrate that transcriptional plasticity drives stable epigenetic resistance. With a CRISPR-Cas9 screen we identify regulators of enhancer function as important modulators of the resistant cell state. We show that inhibition of Lsd1 (Kdm1a) is able to overcome stable epigenetic resistance by facilitating the binding of the pioneer factor, Pu.1 and cofactor, Irf8, to nucleate new enhancers that regulate the expression of key survival genes. This enhancer switching results in the re-distribution of transcriptional co-activators, including Brd4, and provides the opportunity to disable their activity and overcome epigenetic resistance. Together these findings highlight key principles to help counteract non-genetic drug resistance.

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