title: Association between the expression levels of TAZ, AXL and CTGF and clinicopathological parameters in patients with colon cancer.
abstract: Colon cancer accounts for a large proportion of all the cancer-associated morbidities worldwide. Genetic analysis and stratification of patients based on survival may identify genetic signatures potentially useful for prognostic or treatment planning purposes. Previous studies have reported that the messenger (m)RNA expression levels of tafazzin (TAZ), AXL receptor tyrosine kinase (AXL) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) were able to predict the survival of patients with colon cancer in two independent colon cancer datasets. However, limited clinicopathological data were available from these two datasets. By contrast, a large colon cancer dataset comprising 566 patients has been recently published in the Gene Expression Omnibus database, which contains data regarding tumor stage and location, and genetic status of mismatch repair (MMR), Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS), B-Raf proto-oncogene serine/threonine kinase (BRAF) and tumor protein p53 (TP53). In the present study, the mRNA expression levels of TAZ, AXL and CTGF were evaluated, and the TAZ-AXL-CTGF signature was correlated with the available pathological parameters and survival data. Overexpression of TAZ, AXL and CTGF was observed to be associated with severe pathological stage, deficiency in MMR, colon cancer subtype C4 and mutations in the BRAF gene. In addition, overexpression of TAZ-AXL-CTGF was associated with short overall survival in patients with mutations in the TP53 gene, colon cancer subtype C6, proficient MMR and wild-type status of the KRAS and BRAF genes. Furthermore, the prognostic value of TAZ-AXL-CTGF overexpression was observed to be independent of all the clinicopathological parameters and mutational statuses analyzed. The results of the present study confirm the previously reported findings, and suggest that the TAZ-AXL-CTGF mRNA signature is a potential prognostic indicator in colon cancer.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, SAR, P.R. China; Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK.
authors.forename: Shu-Dong
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK.
authors.forename: Cian M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: McCrudden
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Proteos, Singapore 138673, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Hiu-Fung
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Yuen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, SAR, P.R. China; Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK.
authors.forename: Ka Lai
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Proteos, Singapore 138673, Republic of Singapore.
authors.forename: Wan-Jin
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, SAR, P.R. China; Center for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, School of Pharmacy, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT9 7BL, UK; Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0XZ, UK.
authors.forename: Hang Fai
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Kwok
keywords: AXL; CTGF; TAZ; colon cancer; prognosis; survival