The clinicopathological and prognostic significances of IGF-1R and Livin expression in patients with colorectal cancer

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide. However, limited effective biomarkers are associated with the tumorigenesis and prognosis of CRC. Methods The present study identified potential signatures from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and further validated the identified biomarkers in CRC tissues by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Results The expression of insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R) and Livin gene was significantly upregulated in CRC samples compared to the adjacent normal samples in the TCGA dataset. IHC indicated that IGF-1R and Livin protein levels are increased in CRC and adenoma tissues compared to normal tissues. Notably, the IGF-1R protein levels differed significantly between adenoma and CRC. The elevated IGF-1R and Livin expression was associated with CRC clinicopathological features, including age, gender, histological subtype, individual cancer stages, nodal metastasis, and TP53-mutant in TCGA. Additionally, the IGF-1R promoter methylation level was closely related to CRC. Consistent with the TCGA study, IHC indicated that overexpressed IGF-1R and Livin proteins were independent risk factors for stage and metastasis. A marked correlation was established between IGF-1R and Livin expression in CRC, while the survival map showed no significant correlation with CRC. Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that CRC patients with high IGF-1R or Livin expression had a prolonged overall disease-free survival than those with low expression in TCGA. Conclusion IGF-1R and Livin are associated with CRC tumorigenesis and might be valuable for novel biomarker identification and targeted therapeutic strategy development. Keywords: Insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-1R), Livin, Colorectal cancer, Tumorigenesis, The Cancer genome atlas (TCGA)