Up-regulation of SLC9A9 Promotes Cancer Progression and Is Involved in Poor Prognosis in Colorectal Cancer.

Background/aim: SLC9A9 plays an oncogenic role in esophageal squamous carcinoma and glioblastoma. Herein, we showed an oncogenic function of SLC9A9 in colorectal cancer (CRC).
Materials and Methods: We examined SLC9A9 expression in CRC specimens by immunohistochemistry. In CRC tissues, the relationship between SLC9A9 expression and clinicopathological factors was further elucidated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA). In vitro, we performed knockdown and overexpression experiments.
Results: SLC9A9 was overexpressed in CRC specimens. In clinicopathological analysis of our cohort, high SLC9A9 expression increased liver metastasis and was correlated with worse prognoses in two cohorts. A significantly positive relationship between SLC9A9 and EGFR was revealed. While knockdown of SLC9A9 suppressed proliferation and anchorage-independent growth, up-regulation of SLC9A9 promoted proliferation and anchorage-independent growth in vitro.
Conclusion: SLC9A9 has an oncogenic function by being related to EGFR signaling, suggesting SLC9A9 may be a novel prognostic indicator and a therapeutic target in CRC.
(Copyright© 2017, International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. George J. Delinasios), All rights reserved.)