Gab2 is a novel prognostic factor for colorectal cancer patients

Gab2 (Grb2-associated binder 2), a member of the DOS/Gab family of scaffolding adapters, serves as a critical signal amplifier downstream of various growth factor receptors. Recent studies have identified that Gab2 is overexpressed in several cancer types and that increased Gab2 expression promotes cell proliferation, cell transformation, and tumor progression. Here, we show for the first time that Gab2 protein is overexpressed in clinical colorectal cancer (CRC) specimens. Elevated mRNA (P=0.014) expression and protein (P=0.003) expression of Gab2 were found in most CRC tissues compared with the matched adjacent non-tumor tissues using real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) and western blotting, respectively. Immunohistochemical analyses showed that Gab2 protein was upregulated in CRC tissues relative to adjacent normal tissues (P<0.001), and this overexpression was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (P=0.007), distant metastasis (P<0.001) and TNM stage (P=0.002). According to Kaplan-Meier model, CRC patients with Gab2-positive had a significantly poorer prognosis compared to those with Gab2-negative (P=0.007). Multivariate analysis suggested that the positive expression of Gab2 protein was an independent prognostic factor for CRC patients. In conclusion, our data demonstrated that Gab2 expression may play an important role in the progression of CRC, and underscored that Gab2 has the potential value as a prognostic predictor for CRC patients.