Decreased expression of dual specificity phosphatase 22 in colorectal cancer and its potential prognostic relevance for stage IV CRC patients

Dual specificity phosphatase 22 (DUSP22) is a novel dual specificity phosphatase that has been demonstrated to be a cancer suppressor gene associated with numerous biological and pathological processes. However, little is known of DUSP22 expression profiling in colorectal cancer and its prognostic value. Our study aims to investigate the role of DUSP22 expression in the prognosis of colorectal cancer. We detected the mRNA expression in 92 paired primary colorectal cancer tissues and the corresponding adjacent normal tissues by using QuantiGenePlex assay. The Friedman test was used to determine the statistical difference of gene expression. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was performed. Mann–Whitney test and Kruskal–Wallis test were used to conduct data analyses to determine the prognostic value. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. In 74 of 92 cases, DUSP22 mRNA was reduced in primary colorectal cancer tissues, compared to the adjacent normal tissues. The mRNA levels of DUSP22 were significantly lower in colorectal cancer tissues than in adjacent normal tissues (0.0290 vs. 0.0658; P < 0.001). Low expression of DUSP22 correlated significantly with large tumor size (P = 0.013). No association was observed between DUSP22 mRNA expression and differentiation, histopathological type, tumor invasion, lymph node metastases, metastases, TNM stage, and Duke’s phase (all P > 0.05). Kaplan–Meier analysis indicated that DUSP22 expression had no significant relationship with overall survival in all patients (P > 0.05). Interestingly, low expression level of DUSP22 in stage IV patients had a poor survival measures with a marginal P value (P = 0.07). Reduced DUSP22 expression was found in colorectal cancer specimens. Low expression level of DUSP22 in stage IV patients had a poor survival outcome. Further study is required for the investigation of the role of DUSP22 in colorectal cancer.