Wang Fang, Wu Xiaoting, Li Yajun, Cao Xiangmei, Zhang Cao, Gao Yujing
Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, Ningxia 750004, P.R. China.
Key Laboratory of Fertility Preservation and Maintenance of Ministry of Education, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, Ningxia 750004, P.R. China.
Oncol Lett. 2021 Apr;21(4):296. doi: 10.3892/ol.2021.12557. Epub 2021 Feb 17.
Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common types of cancer worldwide. Previous studies have reported that phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase 4 (PFKFB4) functions as an oncoprotein in various types of cancer. However, the association between PFKFB4 and GC remains unclear. The present study analyzed the expression levels of PFKFB4 in 148 GC tissue samples, including 46 tumor tissues with matched adjacent normal tissues, using immunohistochemistry, compared the expression levels of PFKFB4 between GC and adjacent normal tissues, and determined the association between PFKFB4 expression levels and patient clinicopathological characteristics. In addition, survival curves were generated using the Kaplan-Meier (KM) plotter database to evaluate the association between PFKFB4 expression and GC prognosis. The results revealed that PFKFB4 expression was upregulated in GC tissues compared with in adjacent normal tissues. PFKFB4 expression was associated with patient age, tumor size, pathological tumor (pT) stage and tumor-node-metastasis (pTNM) stage, and upregulated expression levels of PFKFB4 were observed in tumor tissues from patients <65 years old (compared with that in patients ≥65 years old), as well as patients with a larger tumor size and an advanced stage (pT and pTNM stage) disease. In addition, KM survival analysis demonstrated that patients with low PFKFB4 expression had a significantly improved overall survival (OS), first progression survival and post-progression survival times compared with those with high PFKFB4 expression. Furthermore, PFKFB4 expression was negatively associated with OS time in patients with late pT and pTNM stage disease. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicated that the upregulated PFKFB4 expression in GC tissues may serve as a biomarker for a more advanced disease and a poor prognosis in patients with GC.
胃癌（GC）是全球最常见的癌症类型之一。先前的研究报道，磷酸果糖激酶-2/果糖-2,6-二磷酸酶4（PFKFB4）在多种类型的癌症中作为一种癌蛋白发挥作用。然而，PFKFB4与GC之间的关联仍不清楚。本研究采用免疫组织化学方法分析了148例GC组织样本（包括46例肿瘤组织及其匹配的相邻正常组织）中PFKFB4的表达水平，比较了GC组织与相邻正常组织中PFKFB4的表达水平，并确定了PFKFB4表达水平与患者临床病理特征之间的关联。此外，使用Kaplan-Meier（KM）绘图仪数据库生成生存曲线，以评估PFKFB4表达与GC预后之间的关联。结果显示，与相邻正常组织相比，GC组织中PFKFB4表达上调。PFKFB4表达与患者年龄、肿瘤大小、病理肿瘤（pT）分期和肿瘤-淋巴结-转移（pTNM）分期相关，在<65岁患者（与≥65岁患者相比）以及肿瘤较大和疾病分期较晚（pT和pTNM分期）的患者的肿瘤组织中观察到PFKFB4表达上调。此外，KM生存分析表明，与PFKFB4高表达患者相比，PFKFB4低表达患者的总生存期（OS）、首次进展生存期和进展后生存期显著改善。此外，PFKFB4表达与晚期pT和pTNM分期疾病患者的OS时间呈负相关。总之，本研究结果表明，GC组织中PFKFB4表达上调可能作为GC患者疾病更晚期和预后不良的生物标志物。
