Low expression of RASSF10 is associated with poor survival in patients with colorectal cancer

The RASSF10 has been identified as a tumor suppressor in human colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the expression of RASSF10 in patients with CRC has not been evaluated for its potential use as a biomarker in the diagnosis and prognosis assessment of CRC. We analyzed the expression of RASSF10 mRNA (n=30) and protein (n=205) in CRC and matched noncancerous colon tissue samples to explore the relationships among RASSF10 expression, clinicopathological factors, and prognosis in patients with CRC. Our results showed that the expression of RASSF10 mRNA and protein in CRC-adjacent tissues was higher than that in CRC tissues. Low RASSF10 expression was associated with the T stage (P=.037, odds ratio, 0.664; 95% confidence interval, 0.452-0.975) and the N stage (P<.001, odds ratio, 0.318; 95% confidence interval, 0.184-0.549) of the tumors. In addition, univariate analysis revealed that patients with CRC with lower RASSF10 expression had poorer overall survival (OS; P<.001) and disease-free survival (DFS; P<.001). The 5-year OS and DFS rates were 48.2% and 28.3%, respectively, in patients with low RASSF10 expression and 82.2% and 62.6%, respectively, in patients with high RASSF10 expression. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the strongest predictors of OS and DFS were RASSF10 expression (P<.001 and P<.001, respectively), T stage (P=.003 and P=.009, respectively), and N stage (P=.005 and P=.026, respectively). These results demonstrate that low expression of RASSF10 in CRC tissues is significantly correlated with poor survival after curative resection and may serve as a useful biomarker predictive of CRC prognosis.