Cancer is a heterogeneous disease, and even tumors with similar clinicopathological characteristics show different biology, behavior, and treatment responses. As a result, there is an urgent need to define new prognostic and predictive markers to make treatment options more personalized. According to the latest findings, nucleobindin-2/nesfatin-1 (NUCB2/NESF-1) is an important factor in cancer development and progression. Nucleobindin-2 is a precursor protein of nesfatin-1. As NUCB2 and nesfatin-1 are colocalized in each tissue, their expression is often analyzed together as NUCB2. The metabolic function of NUCB2/NESF-1 is related to food intake, glucose metabolism, and the regulation of immune, cardiovascular and endocrine systems. Recently, it has been demonstrated that high expression of NUCB2/NESF-1 is associated with poor outcomes and promotes cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in, e.g., breast, colon, prostate, endometrial, thyroid, bladder cancers, or glioblastoma. Interestingly, nesfatin-1 is also considered an inhibitor of the proliferation of human adrenocortical carcinoma and ovarian epithelial carcinoma cells. These conflicting results make NUCB2/NESF-1 an interesting target of study in the context of cancer progression. The present review is the first to describe NUCB2/NESF-1 as a new prognostic and predictive marker in cancers.
Keywords: NESF-1; NUCB2; cancer; nesfatin-1; nucleobindin-2.