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01-12-2013 | Research Article

Prognostic significance of nemo-like kinase (NLK) expression in patients with gallbladder cancer

Authors: Maolan Li, Shenglai Zhang, Zhiqiang Wang, Bingtai Zhang, Xiangsong Wu, Hao Weng, Qian Ding, Zhujun Tan, Ning Zhang, Jiasheng Mu, Jiahua Yang, Yijun Shu, Runfa Bao, Qichen Ding, Wenguang Wu, Yang Cao, Yingbin Liu

Published in: Tumor Biology | Issue 6/2013

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.

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Title: Prognostic significance of nemo-like kinase (NLK) expression in patients with gallbladder cancer
Authors: Maolan Li
Shenglai Zhang
Zhiqiang Wang
Bingtai Zhang
Xiangsong Wu
Hao Weng
Qian Ding
Zhujun Tan
Ning Zhang
Jiasheng Mu
Jiahua Yang
Yijun Shu
Runfa Bao
Qichen Ding
Wenguang Wu
Yang Cao
Yingbin Liu
Publication date: 01-12-2013
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Tumor Biology / Issue 6/2013
Print ISSN: 1010-4283
Electronic ISSN: 1423-0380
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-0988-4

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