Prognostic value of TROP2 expression in patients with gallbladder cancer

Abstract

Altered expression of TROP2 is observed in various types of human cancers. However, the clinical significance and pathological role of TROP2 in gallbladder cancer (GBC) remains unclear. The main objective of this investigation was to clarify the relationships between TROP2 expression and the clinicopathological features of patients with GBC. Immunohistochemistry was performed to investigate the expression of TROP2 and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) indicator proteins in 93 patients with GBC. Immunohistochemistry showed that the protein expression level of TROP2 was significantly higher in GBC tissues than in adjacent noncancerous tissues. In addition, immunohistochemistry analysis showed that TROP2 expression was significantly correlated with histologic grade (P=0.038), tumor stage (P=0.015), and lymph node metastasis (P=0.007). Furthermore, high TROP2 expression was significantly associated with a loss of the epithelial marker E-cadherin (P=0.013) and acquisition of expression of the mesenchymal marker vimentin (P=0.031). Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to investigate the correlation between TROP2 expression and prognosis of GBC patients. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that patients with high TROP2 expression had poor overall survival (P<0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that high TROP2 expression was an independent predictor of overall survival. In conclusion, our data suggest for the first time that the increased expression of TROP2 in GBC is associated significantly with aggressive progression and poor prognosis. In conclusion, this study confirmed that TROP2 might be involved in regulating the EMT and malignant progression in GBC. It also provided the first evidence that TROP2 expression in GBC was an independent prognostic factor of patients, which might be a potential diagnostic and therapeutic target of GBC.

TROP2 promotes proliferation, migration and metastasis of gallbladder cancer cells by regulating PI3K/AKT pathway and inducing EMT

“…Although Chen et al . revealed that TROP2 overexpression was associated with poor prognosis of GBC [ 16 ], TROP2 signal pathways and possible mechanisms are still unclear in GBC proliferation, migration and metastasis. We have previously characterized the cancer stem-like cells from GBC cells [ 17 ], and investigated their multidrug resistance [ 18 , 19 ].…”

The role and molecular mechanism of Trop2 induced epithelial‐mesenchymal transition through mediated β‐catenin in gastric cancer

“…In 2014, Chen et al performed immunohistochemistry to observe the expression of Trop2 and EMT marker in gallbladder cancer. The results indicated that high Trop2 expression was significantly associated with lower E‐cadherin expression and acquisition of expression of vimentin . In our previous study, we also found Trop2+/E‐cadherin−was expressed in breast cancer (BC) and was associated with lymph node status, metastasis, tumor‐node‐metastasis (TNM) stage, and ER−/PR−/HER2− expression.…”

TROP2 promotes cell proliferation and migration in osteosarcoma through PI3K/AKT signaling

“…TROP2 is found to be overexpressed in the majority of human epithelial cancers, including pancreatic cancer, gastric cancer, lung cancer, ovarian cancer, and colorectal cancers (10,14,32). Chen et al (33) investigated the expression of TROP2 and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) indicator proteins in 93 patients with gallbladder cancer (GBC) and demonstrated that increased expression of TROP2 in GBC is associated significantly with aggressive progression and poor prognosis. In another study based on clinical samples, Guan et al (34) found that overexpression of TROP2 could be an independent predictor for poor clinical outcome in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.…”