title: Prognostic significance of nemo-like kinase (NLK) expression in patients with gallbladder cancer.
abstract: Nemo-like kinase (NLK), a serine/threonine protein kinase, has been implicated in tumor development and progression, and plays an important role in diverse signaling pathways by phosphorylating a variety of transcription factors. Recent studies demonstrated that altered expression of NLK was observed in various types of human cancers. However, the clinical significance of NLK expression in gallbladder cancer (GBC) remains largely unknown. In this study, we focused on the clinical significance of NLK in GBC, and found that nuclear NLK protein overexpression was frequently detected in GBC tissues. The overexpression of NLK was significantly correlated with histological grade, TNM stage, and perineural invasion. The results of Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that a high expression level of NLK resulted in a significantly poorer prognosis of GBC patients (P = 0.002). Furthermore, multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that high NLK expression was an independent prognostic factor for GBC patients (HR = 3.077). In conclusion, overexpression of NLK is closely related to progression of GBC, and NLK could be used as a potential prognostic marker for GBC patients.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute of Biliary Tract Disease Affiliated to School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 1665 Kongjiang Road, Shanghai, 200092, China.
authors.forename: Maolan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shenglai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Bingtai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiangsong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Zhujun
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jiasheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.forename: Jiahua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Yijun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shu
authors.forename: Runfa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Qichen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Wenguang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Yingbin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005706:Gallbladder Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D047908:Intracellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; C470551:NLK protein, human; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases