AMPK/TET2 expressions and their clinical relevance in colorectal cancer

Abstract

Background: Inactivation of the ten-eleven translocation (TET) family members, the DNA hydroxylases catalyze 5mC into 5hmC, was closely related to the cancer initiation and progression. AMPK is known to play a role in regulating TET2, but the clinical relevance of AMPK / TET2 in colorectal cancer is unclear. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the clinical significance of AMPK/TET2 expression in CRCs

Materials and Methods: We used immunohistochemistry to retrospectively examine expressions of AMPK and TET2 in paraffin-embedded specimens from 343 patients with colorectal cancer between January 2009 and December 2014.

Results: High expression of AMPK and TET2 in CRCs samples was observed in 89(25.9%) and 93(27.1%), respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the association of TET2 expression with clinicopathologic factors (age, tumor location, lymphatic invasion, vascular invasion, perineural invasion, TNM stage, differentiation) except distant metastsis(p=0.017) and AMPK expression(p=0.014). AMPK expression was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis(p<0.001), distant metastasis(p=0.019) and advanced overall stage(p<0.001). In the survival analysis, the High expression group of TET2 showed a better prognosis than the low expression group in OS(p=0.004). However, High expression of AMPK showed poor prognosis in both overall survival(p=0.026) and disease free survival(p=0.035)

Conclusions: Our current findings demonstrate the clinical significance of AMPK/TET2 in colorectal cancer. This study showed that TET2 overexpression was positively independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis of survival. But AMPK expression is associated with poor prognosis in colorectal cancer. Therefore, further studies are needed to understand the potential role of AMPK/TET2 axis