title: RhoA is associated with invasion and poor prognosis in colorectal cancer.
abstract: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers and is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in Korea. Mortality of colorectal cancer is strongly associated with the metastatic spread of the disease. As such, it is important to find and characterize signaling pathways involved in colon cancer metastasis. We investigated the functional importance of RhoA using human cell lines as well as 150 colorectal cancer patient-derived samples as it remains unclear whether RhoA functions as either an oncogene or a tumor suppressor in colon cancer. RhoA was highly expressed in metastatic cancer cell lines. Although cancer cell proliferation was only moderately impaired after depletion of RhoA, RhoA-depleted cancer cells exhibited markedly reduced migration and invasion ability in vitro. Furthermore, we found that RhoA is associated with the invasion of lymph nodes and blood vessels in the patient colorectal cancer samples. Most notably, patients with higher RhoA expression had a significantly poorer 5-year survival rate after surgery. These results suggest that RhoA is a marker of poor prognosis in colorectal cancer and may be a promising target for cancer treatment.
authors.affiliation: Soonchunhyang Medical Science Research Institute, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Dongjun
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.affiliation: Soonchunhyang Medical Science Research Institute, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Soyoung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Soonchunhyang Medical Science Research Institute, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyungjoo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chang-Jin
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Sung
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sang Byung
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Han Jo
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Tae Hyun
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanochemical Engineering, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jungkyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Im
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Moon Soo
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Soonchunhyang Institute of Medi-bio Science, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyog Young
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Moo Jun
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Baek
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D018938:Caco-2 Cells; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement / Q000235:genetics; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000235:genetics; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics; D045325:HCT116 Cells; D019073:HT29 Cells; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000473:pathology; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate; D020742:rhoA GTP-Binding Protein / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C066737:RHOA protein, human; D020742:rhoA GTP-Binding Protein