Overexpression of integrin α7 correlates with advanced disease condition and poor prognosis in rectal cancer patients.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of integrin α7 expression with clinicopathological features and disease-free survival (DFS) as well as overall survival (OS) in rectal cancer (RC) patients. 219 RC patients who underwent surgery were retrospectively reviewed in this study. Tumor tissues and paired adjacent tissues samples were collected. An immunofluorescence assay was preformed to detect integrin α7 expression. The median follow-up duration in this study was 70 months, and the last follow-up date was 2017/12/31. Integrin α7 was overexpressed in tumor tissues compared to paired adjacent tissues (P<0.001), and its high expression correlated with higher pathological grade (P<0.001), larger tumor size (≥5 cm) (P=0.018), advanced T stage (P=0.003), elevated N stage (P=0.003) and increased TNM stage (P=0.004). Kaplan-Meier curves disclosed that integrin α7 high expression was associated with shorter DFS (P<0.001) and worse OS (P<0.001) compared to low expression. A multivariate Cox's analysis revealed that integrin α7 high expression was an independent factor for unfavorable DFS (P<0.001) and OS (P<0.001) in RC patients. In conclusion, Integrin α7 is highly expressed in tumor tissues and positively correlates with advanced disease condition, and it serves as an independent factor for unfavorable prognosis in RC patients.