ARHGAP25 expression in colorectal cancer as a biomarker associated with favorable prognosis

Although progress has been made in the early diagnosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) and in the systemic therapy of patients with CRC, the prognosis for advanced CRC remains poor. Our previous study demonstrated that ARHGAP25 over-expression significantly inhibits CRC cell growth, invasion and migration. However, it was not possible to evaluate and analyze the overall survival (OS) rate of patients with CRC. Thus, the discovery of relevant factors and their expression on the basis of existing research is necessary to predict the OS rate of patients with advanced CRC. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to define the value of Rho GTPase-activating protein 25 (ARHGAP25) expression in predicting the OS rate in patients with CRC. The clinical data of 153 patients with CRC who underwent colorectal resection were retrospectively analyzed. In order to explore the expression of ARHGAP25, immunohistochemical analysis of the tumor tissues of these patients, was performed. Univariate Cox regression analysis was used to assess the prognostic value of ARHGAP25 expression for OS. Multivariate analysis was used to evaluate the effect of ARHGAP25 expression in the presence of other variables. Confounding factors and interaction were assessed by a stratified analysis using ARHGAP25 expression and other variables associated with survival. The univariate analysis revealed that, ARHGAP25 expression was associated with an improved OS in patients with CRC (P<0.05). The multivariate analysis revealed that ARHGAP25 expression was still correlated with an improved OS after adjusting for sex, age, invasion degree, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM stage, tumor location, histological type, histological grade, tumor deposits, and postoperative treatment (P<0.05). The stratified analysis demonstrated that the predictive value of ARHGAP25 for the OS of patients with CRC was stronger in males, elderly patients (>70 years old), patients with T3 stage tumor, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage III, right hemicolon location and patients with a poorly differentiated tumor (P<0.05). Overall, our results demonstrated that ARHGAP25 may have an important potential value for improving the prognosis of patients with CRC.