Increased Expression of Thymosin β Is Independently Correlated with Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1α (HIF-1α) and Worse Clinical Outcome in Human Colorectal Cancer.

BACKGROUND

Thymosin β is a multi-functional hormone-like polypeptide, being involved in cell migration, angiogenesis, and tumor metastasis. This study was undertaken to clarify the clinicopathologic implications of thymosin β expression in human colorectal cancers (CRCs).

METHODS

We investigated tissue sections from 143 patients with CRC by immunohistochemistry. In addition, we evaluated the expression patterns and the clinico-pathological significance of thymosin β expression in association with hypoxia inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) expression in the CRC series.

RESULTS

High expression of thymosin β was significantly correlated with lymphovascular invasion, invasion depth, regional lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and TNM stage. Patients with high expression of thymosin β showed poor recurrence-free survival (p = .001) and poor overall survival (p = .005) on multivariate analysis. We also found that thymosin β and HIF-1α were overexpressed and that thymosin β expression increased in parallel with HIF-1α expression in CRC.

CONCLUSIONS

A high expression level of thymosin β indicates poor clinical outcomes and may be a useful prognostic factor in CRC. Thymosin β is functionally related with HIF-1α and may be a potentially valuable biomarker and possible therapeutic target for CRC.