Cripto-1 Overexpression May Increase Risk of Bladder Cancer

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

According to a new study published in the journal Tumor Biology, researchers have found Cripto-1, an embryonic gene, overexpression may play role in the development of bladder cancer and may have value as a possible prognostic biomarker in patients with bladder cancer.

For the study, researchers sought to investigate the significance of Cripto-1 expression in patients with bladder cancer. To do so, the researchers compared tissue samples of cancerous bladders and noncancerous bladders. They found that Cripto-1 was overexpressed in bladder cancer tissue samples and greatly linked with tumor size (P = 0.003) and tumor grade (P = 0.001).

Furthermore, Cripto-1 overexpression was significantly linked with SRY-related HMG-box gene 2 expression (P = 0.003) and Ki-67 (P = 0.001). SRY-related HMG-box gene 2 regulates gene expression in the stomach and Ki-67 is strongly associated with cell proliferation.

In addition, bladder cancer samples with high Cripto-1 levels were more likely associated with decreased recurrence/metastasis-free survival compared with samples with low Cripto-1 levels (P = 0.011). Statistical analyses demonstrated that Cripto-1 may be a prognostic marker for recurrence/metastasis-free survival (P = 0.036).