Dysregulated and Gene Expression in Colorectal Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most commonly-diagnosed malignancies throughout the world and the fourth-leading cause of cancer deaths globally. Angiogenesis and the resultant tumor neovascularization is a well-known cancer hallmark. Here we investigated the expression of and , the influential genes in angiogenesis regulation, in CRC patients.

METHODS

We assessed and mRNA expression in 47 CRC samples and matched adjacent noncancerous tissues (ANCT) by quantitative real-time PCR. The Spearmen correlation coefficient and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were also examined.

RESULTS

Both genes were expressed at significantly greater levels in CRC tissues than in ANCT (p < 0.05). A significant association was found between expression and disease stage and lymph status in CRC patients. Furthermore, the Spearman correlation demonstrated a moderate correlation between and expression in CRC samples. Finally, ROC curve analysis demonstrated that had the greatest sensitivity (85.1%), while the greatest specificity was achieved by a combination of the two genes.

CONCLUSION

The dysregulated and expression, in addition to the observed correlation and ROC curve results, indicate the critical importance of angiogenesis among the cancer pathways in CRC. These data can broaden our current knowledge of angiogenesis in CRC to improve disease diagnosis and patient treatment.