In order to understand the clinical significance of rapamycin-insensitive companion of mammalian target of rapamycin (Rictor) in colorectal cancer (CRC), 62 CRC tissue samples excised during operations were evaluated by immunohistochemistry. Analysis of the association between the expression level of Rictor protein and clinicopathological parameters demonstrated that the expression level of Rictor in CRC tissues was significantly higher than that in paracarcinoma tissues (P<0.0001). In cellular experiments, this result was further confirmed by comparing differences in Rictor expression between the CRC cell lines HCT116, SW480 and LoVo, and the human normal liver cell line HL-7702. It was also noticed that the expression of Rictor was associated with Dukes stage, lymphatic metastasis and prognosis, as determined by χ2 test, Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank test. These results suggest that Rictor may be a novel target for the treatment and prognostic assessment of CRC patients in the future.
Keywords: colorectal cancer; immunohistochemistry; rapamycin-insensitive companion of mammalian target of rapamycin; western blotting.