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Cullin 4B is a novel prognostic marker that correlates with colon cancer progression and pathogenesis

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Abstract

Cullin 4B (CUL4B), a scaffold protein of the Cullin4B-RING E3 ligase complex, functions in proteolysis. The present study aims to investigate its expression pattern and evaluate whether CUL4B expression was associated with histopathological and prognosis in the patients with colon cancer. Real-time PCR and western blot were used to identify CUL4B expression in tumor tissue and the paired adjacent normal mucosa from patients with colon cancer. Immunohistochemistry on a tissue microarray containing 203 cases of colon cancer was performed to analyze the association between CUL4B expression and clinicopathological features. Results indicated that CUL4B mRNA and protein levels in tumor tissues were both higher than that in normal mucosae (P < 0.001). Immunohistochemical study displayed that high CUL4B expression was significantly associated with the depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, histological differentiation, vascular invasion, and advanced tumor stage. Patients with CUL4B-positive tumors had a higher recurrence rate and poorer survival than patients with CUL4B-negative tumors. In multivariate analyses, CUL4B expression was an independent factor for determining colon cancer prognosis after surgery. In conclusion, CUL4B might promote the progression of colon cancer and can be served as a novel independent prognostic marker for the prediction of recurrence in colon cancer.

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Acknowledgments

The project was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (81072008, 81172328), Science and Technology Innovation Plan Of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (11431921000), Frontier technology union research project of Shanghai Municipal Hospitals (SHDC12012105).

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There are no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of General Surgery, Shanghai Jiaotong University Affiliated First People’s Hospital, 85 Wujin Road, Shanghai, 200080, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Jiang, Ze-hua Wu, Jian Chen, Chong-zhi Zhou, Dong-wang Yan & Zhi-hai Peng

  2. Department of Pathology, Shanghai Jiaotong University Affiliated First People’s Hospital, 85 Wujin Road, Shanghai, 200080, People’s Republic of China

    Hua-mei Tang & Su Lu

Authors
  1. Tao Jiang
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  2. Hua-mei Tang
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  3. Ze-hua Wu
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  4. Jian Chen
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  5. Su Lu
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  6. Chong-zhi Zhou
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  7. Dong-wang Yan
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  8. Zhi-hai Peng
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Dong-wang Yan or Zhi-hai Peng.

Additional information

Tao Jiang and Huamei Tang contributed equally to this work.

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Jiang, T., Tang, Hm., Wu, Zh. et al. Cullin 4B is a novel prognostic marker that correlates with colon cancer progression and pathogenesis. Med Oncol 30, 534 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-013-0534-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12032-013-0534-7

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