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BMC Cancer
Published in: BMC Cancer 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Colorectal Cancer | Research article

Eukaryotic elongation factor-2 kinase expression is an independent prognostic factor in colorectal cancer

Authors: Tung H. Ng, Kathy W. Y. Sham, Chuan M. Xie, Simon S. M. Ng, Ka F. To, Joanna H. M. Tong, Wing Y. Z. Liu, Lin Zhang, Matthew T. V. Chan, William K. K. Wu, Christopher H. K. Cheng

Published in: BMC Cancer | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

Prognostication of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) currently relies on tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging but clinical outcomes of patients of the same histoclinical stage are heterogeneous. It is therefore imperative to devise novel molecular tests to stratify CRC patients. Our previous work demonstrated that eukaryotic elongation factor-2 kinase (EEF2K) is a tumor suppressor in CRC. Herein, we investigated EEF2K expression in CRC and determined its relationship with clinicopathological parameters.

Methods

Quantitative RT-PCR and Westerns blots were used to examine EEF2K expression in primary tumor and the adjacent non-tumor tissues of CRC patients (n = 20). Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression analysis were used to assess the association between clinical outcomes of CRC patients and EEF2K protein expression determined by immunohistochemistry on tissue microarray (n = 151).

Results

EEF2K was significantly downregulated at both mRNA and protein levels in tumors of CRC patients. Univariate Cox regression analysis revealed that CRC patients with high tumor grade, advanced TNM staging and low EEF2K expression were associated with worse overall survival. Multivariate analysis further demonstrated that low EEF2K expression was an independent factor for predicting poorer overall survival in CRC patients (p = 0.014; Hazard ratio = 2.951; 95% confidence interval: 1.240–7.024). The 5-year survival rate was 82.8% in the EEF2K-high-expression group versus 63.9% in the EEF2K-low-expression group (p = 0.0118). The association of overall survival with EEF2K expression in CRC patients was verified in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort.

Conclusions

EEF2K is downregulated in CRC and its expression can be employed as a prognostic marker for CRC patients independent of TNM staging.
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Metadata
Title
Eukaryotic elongation factor-2 kinase expression is an independent prognostic factor in colorectal cancer
Authors
Tung H. Ng
Kathy W. Y. Sham
Chuan M. Xie
Simon S. M. Ng
Ka F. To
Joanna H. M. Tong
Wing Y. Z. Liu
Lin Zhang
Matthew T. V. Chan
William K. K. Wu
Christopher H. K. Cheng
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Cancer / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2407
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-019-5873-0

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