title: Low expression of Beclin 1, associated with high Bcl-xL, predicts a malignant phenotype and poor prognosis of gastric cancer.
abstract: Recent studies have suggested that dysregulation of autophagy plays a pivotal role in tumorigenesis. Here, we determined the prognostic value of autophagy-related protein Beclin 1 in gastric cancer. A total of 153 primary gastric cancer patients were subjected to analysis of Beclin 1 expression and survival prognosis. Among them, 68 patients were assigned randomly and used as a training set to generate a cutoff score for Beclin 1 expression by receive operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The ROC-generated cutoff score was subjected to analyze the association of Beclin 1 with clinical characteristics and patient outcome. In a testing set (n = 85) and overall patients (n = 153), both univariate and multivariate analysis found that low expression of Beclin 1 predicted adverse overall survival and progression-free survival for gastric cancer patients. Furthermore, in each stage of gastric cancer patients, Beclin 1 expression was a prognostic indicator in patients with stage II, III and IV. Importantly, a reverse relationship between Beclin 1 and Bcl-xL expression was demonstrated. In patients of elevated Bcl-xL expression, a subset with lower Beclin 1 expression displayed an inferior overall survival and progression-free survival than those with higher Beclin 1 expression. Thus, our data demonstrated that low expression of Beclin 1, associated with high Bcl-xL, played as an independent biomarker, contributing to a more aggressive cancer cell phenotype and poor prognosis for gastric tumor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, the Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Hua
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Shao-Bing
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Zhi-Ying
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Yun-Gang
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Xiang-Bo
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Zhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Guan
authors.forename: Hai-Gang
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Dong-Jun
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Chun-Kui
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Quentin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D000071186:Beclin-1; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010641:Phenotype; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012372:ROC Curve; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D051020:bcl-X Protein / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; C491997:BECN1 protein, human; D000071186:Beclin-1; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D051020:bcl-X Protein