A nomogram for predicting overall survival in patients with gastric cancer based on tumor suppressor RCAN1.4 expression and clinical risk factors.

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most prevalent malignant tumors in the world and has an extremely poor prognosis. Regulator of calcineurin 1 (RCAN1), a known tumor suppressor in various cancers, has an undefined role in the proliferation and metastasis of GC. Primary tumor and paired normal gastric tissues were collected from 77 patients with GC for evaluating the mRNA levels of 3 RCAN1 transcripts. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox regression analysis were used to assess the prognostic value of 3 RCAN1 transcripts, and to select variables for nomogram. The mRNA levels of RCAN1 isoform 1 (RCAN1.1, P = .0312) and isoform 2 (RCAN1.2, P = .007) were significantly diminished in GC tissues compared with normal tissues, whereas isoform 4 (RCAN1.4) expression level showed no significant differences. GC patients with lower RCAN1.4 mRNA levels had shorter overall survival time than patients whose tumors had high RCAN1.4 levels (P = .04). Downregulated expression of RCAN1.4 was found to be an independent prognostic factor of overall survival in GC patients, with a hazard ratio of 2.485 and a significant P-value of .023 in multivariate Cox analysis. The concordance index of nomogram to predict overall survival was 0.788, based on RCAN1.4 level, tumor stage and lymph node metastasis status. In conclusion, our findings suggest that RCAN1.4 is a novel prognostic marker for gastric cancer, targeting RCAN1.4 may provide a promising therapeutic strategy in GC management.