Background and aim: Nucleolar and spindle-associated protein 1 (NUSAP1) is an indispensable mitotic regulator. Aberrant NUSAP1 expression is associated with perturbed mitosis and tumorigenesis. In this study, we investigated the clinical significance of NUSAP1 expression in colon cancer.
Methods and materials: Immunohistochemical staining was performed to determine NUSAP1 protein levels in paraffin colon tumor specimens. Real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was conducted to detect NUSAP1 mRNA levels in colon tumor samples. The association between NUSAP1 protein expression and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with colon cancer was assessed. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was performed to determine the prognostic significance of NUSAP1 in colon cancer. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to calculate univariate and multivariate hazard ratios for the NUSAP1 and other clinicopathological variables.
Result: NUSAP1 protein and mRNA levels were significantly higher in colon tumor tissues than in paired non-cancerous adjacent tissues (P < 0.001, respectively). NUSAP1 protein expression was significantly correlated with histopathological grading (P < 0.001), depth of invasion (P = 0.001), lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001) and TNM stage (P < 0.001). The overall survival rate of patients with high NUSAP1 expression was significantly lower than for patients with low NUSAP1 expression (log-rank test, P < 0.001). A multivariate Cox model demonstrated that NUSAP1 is an independent risk factor for overall survival (P = 0.025).
Conclusion: NUSAP1 is overexpressed in colon cancer and high expression of NUSAP1 acts as an independent predictive factor for poor prognosis in colon cancer.
Keywords: Colon cancer; Immunohistochemistry; Nucleolar and spindle-associated protein 1; Prognosis.
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