Low RCAN1.2 mRNA Expression Is Associated with Poor Prognosis of Patients with Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

This study aims to explore the role of in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells, determine the mRNA level of three isoforms in ESCC tissue, and evaluate the prognostic value of three isoforms. Colony-forming assay, Wound-healing assay and Transwell assay were used to evaluate the effect of on cell proliferation, migration and invasion. The mRNA expression of three isoforms was detected in paired tumor and normal tissues from 100 ESCC patients by real-time PCR. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazards model were used to evaluate the prognostic value of three isoforms. A nomogram was used to predict the probability of 2-year and 5-year overall survival (OS). In vitro, knockdown of could promote ESCC cell proliferation, migration and invasion abilities. Compared to the paired normal tissues, isoform 1 ( , =0.0027) and isoform 2 ( , =0.0006) were significantly decreased in tumor tissues. The low expression of mRNA was associated with advanced stage ( =0.0176) and lymph node metastasis (LNM, =0.0219). ESCC patients with low mRNA levels had shorter survival time compared to those with high levels ( =0.007). Multivariate COX analysis indicated that mRNA level was an independent prognostic indicator of OS of patients with ESCC (hazard ratio=0.5266, =0.03554). The concordance index of nomogram to predict OS was 0.693 based on LNM, , tumor stage and patients' age. These findings show that gene play a role in preventing proliferation, migration, and invasive activity of ESCC cells. mRNA level is a novel prognostic marker in ESCC, targeting may provide a potential therapeutic approach in ESCC.