Relationships of expression of uncoupling protein-2 with clinicopathological features and prognosis in patients with colorectal cancer

Objective To explore the expression of uncoupling protein-2 (UCP2) in colorectal cancer tissues and its relationships with clinicopathological features and prognosis, and to clarify the influencing factors of prognosis of patients.

Methods A total of 160 patients with colorectal cancer who underwent radical resection from January 2018 to January 2020 were selected as study subjects. UCP2 expression levels were measured by immunohistochemistry (SP) in the excised and adjacent tissues, and the difference of UCP2 expression between the cancerous tissues and adjacent tissues was compared. The overall survival rate and disease-free survival rate of colorectal cancer patients with different UCP2 expressions were compared at 1-year follow-up. Univariate analysis was used to investigate the relationship between UCP2 protein expression and prognosis of patients. Multivariate Logistic regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors for prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer.

Results UCP2 expression level in cancer tissues was higher than that in adjacent tissues (P < 0.01); the UCP2 positive expression levels in cancer tissues of TNM stage Ⅲ, lymph node metastasis and poorly differentiated patients were higher than those of other patients (P < 0.01); the 1-year overall survival rate and disease-free survival rate of UCP2 positive expression patients were lower than those of negative expression patients (P < 0.05); univariate analysis showed that 1-year survival rates of colorectal cancer patients with different degrees of tumordifferentiation, TNM staging, lymph node metastasis and UCP2 expressions showed statistically significant differences(P < 0.05); the independent risk factors for patients with colorectal cancer included tumor differentiation (low differentiation), TNM staging (stage Ⅲ), UCP2 positive expression, lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05).

Conclusion High UCP2 expression of colorectal cancer patients is closely related to the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis, and it also proves that the patients with colorectal cancer have poor prognosis.