Increased Expression of TRPS1 Affects Tumor Progression and Correlates with Patients' Prognosis of Colon Cancer

AIM To detect the expression pattern of tricho-rhino-phalangeal syndrome-1 (TRPS1) in human colon cancer and to analyze its correlation with prognosis of patients with this disease. METHODS The expressions of TRPS1 in human colon cancer and its corresponding noncancerous colon tissues were detected at both mRNA and protein levels. RESULTS The mRNA and protein expression levels of TRPS1 were both significantly higher in colon cancer than in corresponding noncancerous colon tissues (both P < 0.001). The protein level of TRPS1 in colon cancer tissues was significantly correlated with the mRNA level (r = 0.9, P < 0.001). Additionally, immunohistochemistry analysis also found increased TRPS1 expression in 63.0% (63/100) of colon cancer tissues. High TRPS1 expression was significantly associated with positive lymph node metastasis (P = 0.006) and higher pathological stage (P = 0.008) of patients with colon cancer. Multivariate Cox regression analysis further suggested that the increased expression of TRPS1 was an independent poor prognostic factor for this disease. CONCLUSION Our data offer the convincing evidence for the first time that the increased expression of TRPS1 may be involved in the pathogenesis and progression of colon cancer. TRPS1 might be a potential marker to predict the prognosis in colon cancer.