Expression and prognosis analyses of the Tob/BTG antiproliferative (APRO) protein family in human cancers

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 12; no. 9; p. e0184902
• Main Authors: Bai, Yuru, Qiao, Lu, Xie, Ning, Shi, Yongquan, Liu, Na, Wang, Jinhai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 18.09.2017; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adenocarcinoma; Antiproliferatives; Biology; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomarkers; Brain; Breast cancer; BTG2 protein; Cancer; Cell cycle; Cell Cycle Proteins - biosynthesis; Cell Cycle Proteins - genetics; Cell growth; Cell Proliferation; Databases, Genetic; Disease-Free Survival; Female; Gastroenterology; Gene expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Genetic aspects; Genomics; Human performance; Humans; Laboratories; Lung cancer; Lung carcinoma; Male; Medical prognosis; Medical research; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metastases; Neoplasm Metastasis; Neoplasm Proteins - biosynthesis; Neoplasm Proteins - genetics; Neoplasms - genetics; Neoplasms - metabolism; Neoplasms - mortality; Oncology; Physical Sciences; Physiological aspects; Prognosis; Prostate cancer; Proteins; Research and Analysis Methods; Studies; Survival; Survival Rate; Tissues; Tumor proteins; Tumors; Values; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184902

Despite advances in early diagnosis and treatment, cancer remains the major cause of mortality in the world. The Tob/BTG antiproliferative (APRO) protein family is reported to participate in diverse human diseases. However, there's little known about their expression and prognostic values in most human cancers. We performed a detailed cancer vs. normal analysis. The mRNA expression levels of APRO family in various cancers were analyzed via the Oncomine database. Moreover, the Kaplan-Meier Plotter and PrognScan databases were used to evaluate the prognostic values. We observed that the mRNA expression levels of TOB1-2 and BTG2 were decreased in most cancers compared with normal tissues, while BTG3 was upregulated in most cancers. In survival analyses based on Kaplan-Meier Plotter, TOB1, BTG1 and BTG4 showed significant associations with survival outcome of different subtypes of breast cancer. Decreased BTG2 was related with poor relapse free survival (RFS) in all subtypes of breast cancer. Especially, besides RFS, reduced BTG2 also indicated worse overall survival and distant metastasis free survival in breast cancer patients who were classified as luminal A. Significant prognostic effects of the whole APRO family were also found in lung adenocarcinoma, but not in squamous cell lung carcinoma. In addition, potential correlations between some APRO family members and survival outcomes were also observed in ovarian, colorectal and brain cancer. Some members of APRO family showed significant expression differences between cancer and normal tissues, and could be prognostic biomarkers for defined cancer types.