BACKGROUND

Radiotherapy is a standard adjuvant therapy in patients with progressive rectal cancer, but many patients are resistant to radiotherapy, leading to poor prognosis. Our study identified value on radiotherapy response and outcome in rectal cancer patients.

METHODS

expression was determined by qPCR in primary rectal cancer from 48 patients with and 53 patients without radiotherapy. The association of with biological factors and the prognosis was examined. The biological function of was identified through TCGA and GEPIA database searches. Two human colon cancer cell lines (HCT116 p53 and p53) were used for in vitro study. The molecular interactions of and tumor suppressor genes were studied through a computational approach.

RESULTS

In RT patients, expression was significantly decreased in cancers when compared to non-radiotherapy cases ( = 0.002). High expression in non-RT patients was with increased apoptosis marker ( = 0.036), ATM ( = 0.010), and DNp73 expression ( = 0.009). High expression was related to worse disease-free survival of non-radiotherapy patients, independent of gender, age, tumor stage, and differentiation ( = 0.028; HR = 7.398, 95% CI 0.217-3.786). The biological functional analysis further identified the prognostic value and potential relationship of with apoptosis in rectal cancer. expression in cancers was negatively related to WRAP53 expression ( = 0.022). After inhibition, the estimation of reactive oxygen species, caspase activity, and apoptosis in HCT116 p53 cells was significantly increased compared with HCT116 p53 cells after radiation. The results of the molecular docking analysis show that the miR652-CTNNBL1 and miR652-TP53 were highly stable.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest the potential value of expression as a marker for the prediction of radiation response and clinical outcome in rectal cancer patients.