Clinical relevance of the differential expression of the glycosyltransferase gene GCNT3 in colon cancer. Issue 1 (January 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: González-Vallinas, Margarita; Vargas, Teodoro; Moreno-Rubio, Juan; Molina, Susana; Herranz, Jesús; Cejas, Paloma; Burgos, Emilio; Aguayo, Cristina; Custodio, Ana; Reglero, Guillermo; Feliu, Jaime; Ramírez de Molina, Ana
• Is Part Of: European journal of cancer. Volume 51:Issue 1(2015:Jan.)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 8
• Publication Date: 2015-01
• Subjects: Cancer -- Periodicals; Neoplasms -- Periodicals; Cancer -- Périodiques; Cancer; Tumors; Electronic journals; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 616.994
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2014.10.021
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0959-8049

Abstract

<abstract xml:lang="en" abstract-type="author" id="ab005"> <title id="st075">Abstract</title> <sec> <p id="sp0005">Altered glycosylation is considered a universal cancer hallmark. Mucin-type core 2 1, 6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase enzyme (C2GnT-M), encoded by the <italic>GCNT3</italic> gene, has been reported to be altered in tumours and to possess tumour suppressor properties. In this work, we aimed to determine the possible role of <italic>GCNT3</italic> gene expression as prognostic marker in colon cancer. We investigated the differential expression of <italic>GCNT3</italic> gene among tumour samples from stage II colon cancer patients by quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Univariate and Multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to determine the correlation between <italic>GCNT3</italic> expression and disease-free survival. The risk of relapse in <italic>GCNT3</italic> low-expressing cancer patients was significantly higher than that in <italic>GCNT3</italic> high-expressing patients in both training (Hazard Ratio (HR) 4.26, <italic>p</italic> = 0.002) and validation (HR 3.06, <italic>p</italic> = 0.024) series of patients, and this association was independent of clinical factors. Additionally, qRT-PCR was used to explore the modulation of <italic>GCNT3</italic> expression by different antitumour drugs. Three chemotherapeutic agents with different mechanism of action (5-fluorouracil, bortezomib and paclitaxel) significantly induced <italic>GCNT3</italic> expression in several cancer cells, being observed the correlation between antitumour action and <italic>GCNT3</italic> modulation, whereas this gene was not modulated in cells that do not respond to treatment. Overall, these results indicate that low <italic>GCNT3</italic> expression is a promising prognostic biomarker for colon cancer that could be used to identify early-stage colon cancer patients at high risk of relapse. Additionally, our results suggest that this enzyme might also constitute a biomarker to monitor tumour response to chemotherapy in cancer patients.</p> </sec> </abstract>