EXPESSION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF ARL2 AND THE RELATIONSHIP WITH AXL AND STAT3 IN COLORECTAL CANCER

Xunlei Pang^{1, #}, Yingying Cui^{2, #}, Yanhong Wang¹, Kai Cao², Bei Miao¹, Sujuan Fei^{1, *} 

¹Department of Gastroenterology, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, China, Xuzhou- ²Pathology Department, Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, China, Xuzhou

Objective: To study the expression and significance of ARL2 and the relationship with AXL and STAT3 in Colorectal Cancer (CRC).

Methods: Altogether 182 patients with CRC confirmed by histopathological examination admitted to the general surgery on January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014 were chosen to study objects. Survival follow-up was completed by December 31, 2019 by telephone. The expression of ARL2, AXL and STAT3 in 182 CRC tissues and adjacent tissues were detected by the tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry. SPSS 20.0 software was used for statistical processing. Kaplan-Meier method used to drawn the survival curve, log-rank method used for survival univariate analysis, and Cox model used for the survival multiple factor analysis.

Results: The expression level of ARL2, AXL and STAT3 was increased in CRC tissues. ARL2 can be an independent prognostic factor for CRC. The expression level of ARL2 in phase I and Ⅱ is higher than phase Ⅲ and IV, while the expression of AXL in phase I andⅡ is lower than phase Ⅲ and IV (TNM staging) (P<0.05). The expression level of AXL and STAT3 is higher in the distant metastasis group (P<0.05). ARL2 positive expression was significantly increased in the survival group (P<0.05). The expression levels of ARL2 and AXL in CRC tissues were negatively correlated by Spearman rank correlation analysis(r=-0.375, p<0.001). ARL2 was positively related to STAT3 in CRC tissues (r=0.970, p<0.001). AXL was negatively related to STAT3 expression in CRC tissues (r=-0.332, p<0.001). The 5-year CRC survival rate of the ARL2 group with high expression level of different tumor sites, gender, TNM stage and lymph node metastasis group was all higher than that of the ARL2 group with low expression. Whereas, there was no difference in the 5-year survival rate of CRC with the expression level of ARL2 in the group under 65 years of age, and no difference in the expression level of ARL2 in the distant metastasis group.

Conclusion: It was a highly expression of ARL2 in CRC tissues, furthermore high expression of ARL2 improved 5-year survival in CRC. ARL2 maybe affect the expression of AXL negatively and is critical to the development and progress of CRC, and ARL2 played an vital part in the formation, invasion and metastasis of CRC.This study can provide a preliminary assessment of the prognosis of CRC, and ARL2 could be a curative target for CRC.