Expression and clinical significance of tumor necrosis factor receptor-related factor 4 in colorectal cancer

ObjectiveTo investigate the expression levels and clinical significance of tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 4(TRAF4) in colon cancer.

MethodsThe expression levels of TRAF4 in 112 colon cancer tissue specimens and their matched adjacent tissue specimens were detected using the immunohistochemical staining.According to the staining results, the patients were divided into the high expression group and low expression group, and the clinical pathology data and survival prognosis between two groups were compared.The Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis, and the Log-rank test was used to compare the survival rates between groups.The COX proportional hazards regression model was used to analyze the prognostic factors of colon cancer patients.

ResultsTRAF4 was mainly expressed in the nucleus.The high expression rate of TRAF4 in colon cancer tissue was 73.21%(82/112), which was significantly higher than that in the adjacent tissues33.04%(37/112)(P < 0.01).The high expression rate of TRAF4 in patients with poorly differentiated colon cancer was significantly higher than that in patients with well differentiated patients(P < 0.01).The higher the T stage, the greater the high expression rate of TRAF4 was(P < 0.01).The high expression rate of TRAF4 in patients with stage M1 colon cancer was significantly higher than that in patients with M0 stage(P < 0.01).The degree of differentiation, T stage, N stage, M stage and TRAF4 were the independent factors affecting the overall survival time of colon cancer patients(P < 0.05), and the degree of differentiation, N stage, M stage and TRAF4 were the independent factors influencing the progression-free survival time of colon cancer patients(P < 0.05).The overall survival rate and progression-free survival rate in high expression group were 64.29% and 69.64%, respectively, which were lower than those in low expression group(82.43% and 90.18%)(P < 0.05).The median survival time and progression-free survival time in the high expression group were 70.92 months and 72.55 months, respectively, which were lower than those in low expression group(84.81 months and 89.66 months)(P < 0.05).

ConclusionsTRAF4 is related to the degree of differentiation, T stage and M stage of colon cancer, and the high expression of TRAF4 predicts the poor survival prognosis of colon cancer.