Expression Level of FLRG in Colon Cancer Tissue and Its Clinical Significance

  Objective  To investigate the expression of follistatin related gene (FLRG) in colon cancer and its relationship with clinicopathological features of colon cancer.

  Methods  The cancer tissue, paracancerous tissue and normal tissue were collected from 80 patients with colon cancer who underwent radical operation from December 2018 to December 2019. Immunohistochemistry and Real-time PCR were carried out to examine the expression of FLRG and the clinical implications of FLRG was further analyzed.

  Results  The expression of FLRG in colon cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in paracancerous tissues and normal tissues (P<0.05), and the expression of FLRG in paracancerous tissues was significantly higher than that in normal tissues (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the expression of FLRG among colon cancer patients with different sex, age, tumor growth location and differentiation degree (P>0.05). The expression level of FLRG in patients with distant metastasis was higher than that in patients without distant metastasis (P<0.05), and the expression level of FLRG in patients with late clinical stage (stage Ⅲ and Ⅳ) was higher than that in patients with earlier clinical stage (stage Ⅰ and Ⅱ) (P<0.05).

  Conclusion  FLRG is up-regulated in colon cancer tissue, which may be involved in the regulation of tumor development. FLRG may be a potential prognostic target.