Relationships of expressions of Calponin 1 and tumor ubiquitin-specific protease 1 with clinical pathological characteristics in gastric cancer tissues

Objective To investigate the relationships of the expression of Calponin 1 and tumor ubiquitin-specific protease 1 (OTUB1) with clinicopathological features in gastric cancer tissues as well as their prognostic values. Methods A total of 98 patients with gastric cancer were enrolled in this study. The qPCR was used to detect the expression levels of Calponin 1 mRNA and OTUB1 mRNA in gastric cancer tissues; the immunohistochemical staining was performed to detect the protein expression levels of Calponin 1 and OTUB1; the Kaplan-Meier curve was plotted to compare the survival differences among gastric cancer patients with different expression levels of Calponin 1 and OTUB1; the Cox regression model was used to screen the influencing factors of prognosis in gastric cancer. Results Compared with adjacent tissues, the expression levels of Calponin 1 mRNA and OTUB1 mRNA in gastric cancer tissues were significantly higher (P<0.05). The positive expression rates of Calponin 1 and OTUB1 protein in gastric cancer tissues were 63.27% and 65.31% respectively, which were significantly higher than 6.12% and 8.16% in adjacent tissues (P<0.001). The expression levels of Calponin 1 and OTUB1 proteins were increased significantly in gastric cancer tissues of cases with stage Ⅲ of TNM staging and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). The 3-year overall survival rate was 45.16% (28/62) in the Calponin 1-positive group, which was significantly lower than 83.33% (30/36) in the Calponin 1-negative group (Log-rank χ²=12.990, P<0.001). The 3-year overall survival rate was 45.31% (29/64) in the OTUB1-positive group, which was significantly lower than 85.29% (29/34) in the OTUB1-negative group (Log-rank χ²=14.880, P<0.001). The results of multivariate Cox regression showed that Calponin 1 positivity, OTUB1 positivity, stage Ⅲ of TNM staging, and lymph node metastasis were risk factors for death in gastric cancer patients (P<0.001). Conclusion The expressions of Calponin 1 and OTUB1 are upregulated in gastric cancer tissues and are related to TNM staging and lymph node metastasis.