Abstract 3154: Tumor expression of Activin A is associated with clinical outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer

Background: Activin A is a member of the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) superfamily. Activin A shows an extensive variety of biological activities, including mesoderm induction, bone remodeling, muscle atrophy. Activin A is also related to Smad 2/3 mediated cancer development and metastasis. The overexpression of Activin A has been reported in several types of cancers and high expression of Activin A leads to poor prognosis. We examined the relationship between tumor expression of Activin A and clinical outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer. Methods: AACR Annual Meeting 2019 We analyzed the association between tumor expression of Activin A and clinicopathological features and patient’s prognosis in 157 primary colorectal cancers, which were curatively resected between 2008 and 2012. The expression level of Activin A was measured in tumor tissue by quantitative RT-PCR. Patients were categorized into the high or low groups based on median expression value of Activin A and Kaplan-Meier survival analyses were performed to display difference in overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) between two groups. The between-group differences were assessed by the log-rank test and stepwise multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for OS. Result: RT-PCR analysis showed that expression of Activin A was significantly higher in tumor areas compared with that in normal (p