Prognostic significance of vasohibin-1 and vasohibin-2 immunohistochemical expression in gastric cancer

Abstract

Purpose It was recently identified that the vasohibin family may regulate angiogenesis through suppression by the vasohibin-1 gene and promotion by the vasohibin-2 gene. We assessed vasohibin expression in gastric cancer patients and its effect on their prognosis. Methods We evaluated vasohibin immunohistochemical expression in 210 patients with gastric cancer, who underwent radical surgery. The patients were divided first into a vasohibin-1-positive group and a vasohibin-1-negative group, and then into groups with high or low vasohibin-2 expression, to allow us to investigate the clinicopathological factors of prognosis retrospectively. Results There were 139 patients in the vasohibin-1-positive group and 71 patients in the vasohibin-1-negative group, among which there were and 108 with high vasohibin-2 expression and 102 with low vasohibin-2 expression. Vasohibin-1 was associated with Ly (P = 0.003) and pT (P = 0.037), whereas vasohibin-2 was associated with Ly (P < 0.001), V (P < 0.001) and pStage (P < 0.001). Overall, cancer-specific and relapse-free survival rates were lower in the vasohibin-1-positive (P = 0.034, P < 0.001, P = 0.002, respectively) and high vasohibin-2 expression (P = 0.004, P = 0.003, P < 0.001, respectively) groups. Multivariate analysis revealed that vasohibin-1 expression was associated with cancer-specific (P = 0.014, hazard ratio [HR] 4.454) and relapse-free (P = 0.035, HR 2.557) survival and vasohibin-2 expression tended to influence relapse-free survival (P = 0.051, HR 2.061). Grouping patients by vasohibin expression status combinations showed correlation among their expressions (P = 0.005). Overall, cancer-specific and relapse-free survival rates were lowest in the vasohibin-1-positive and high vasohibin-2 expression group. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that vasohibin-1 and vasohibin-2 could be novel biomarkers for predicting gastric cancer prognosis.

The Tubulin Code and Tubulin-Modifying Enzymes in Autophagy and Cancer

“…The VASH family, which includes vasohibin-1 (VASH1) and vasohibin-2 (VASH2), is a novel family of angiogenesis regulators [ 84 ] that act as tubulin-specific CCPs [ 40 , 45 ]. According to their role in angiogenesis, high expression of VASH1 and VASH2 was associated with poor clinical outcomes in gastric, ovarian, and esophageal squamous carcinoma patients [ 85 , 86 , 87 , 88 ]. Despite this, the relationship between the tubulin CCP activity of VASH1/2 and cancer progression or drug sensitivity is still a matter of debate.…”

Clinicopathological Role of Vasohibin in Gastroenterological Cancers: A Meta-Analysis

“…After a further review of the remaining studies, 5 studies were excluded because they involved animal research or were not relevant to the current analysis. Eventually, 10 studies (9 studies on VASH1, and 3 studies on VASH2 including 2 duplicates) were identified as meeting our inclusion criteria (Wang et al 2012;Yan et al 2014;Kitajima et al 2014;Murakami et al 2014;Liu et al 2015;Kim et al 2015;Shen et al 2016;Ma et al 2017;Ninomiya et al 2018;Hara et al 2020). Detailed information on these studies is shown in Tables 1 and 2.…”

“…Reports which discussed the relationship between VASH1 and VASH2 have been limited. The VASH literature in the field of gastric cancer suggests a slight correlation between the expression levels of VASH1 and VASH2 in tumors (Hara et al 2020). Further analysis of VASH1 and VASH2 expression levels in the same patients and an investigation of their relationships are needed.…”

Identification of VASH1 as a Potential Prognostic Biomarker of Lower-Grade Glioma by Quantitative Proteomics and Experimental Verification

“…With the continuous progress of research on VASH1, more and more scholars have developed the special biological characteristics of VASH1 and applied them to clinical treatment as a tumor target. At present, much literature has discussed the clinical role of VASH1 in gastric cancer [ 9 ], ovarian cancer [ 10 ], colorectal cancer [ 11 ], esophageal cancer [ 12 ], prostate cancer [ 13 ], and nonsmall cell lung cancer [ 14 ]. In LGG, there are few reports on the role of VASH1.…”