Investigation of CBL-b, c-CBL expressions in colorectal cancer patients and their relationship with clinicopathological characteristics

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common gastrointestinal cancer and a major cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Molecular indicators of pathogenic factors that regulate CRC, which are known as oncogenes, are desirable for response to treatment and improvement of CRC patient management. Several risk factors play a role in the development of this disease, which can occur genetically, familial, or sporadically. CRC tumorigenesis is stimulated by the proto-oncogene β-catenin (wnt/β-catenin). Casitas B-lineage lymphoma (c-Cbl) inhibits CRC tumor growth through an unknown mechanism that affects nuclear β-catenin. The current objective of this study is to evaluate the expression levels of Cbl-b and c-Cbl genes to determine if their transcripts can be used as suitable diagnostic indicators. Additionally, we aim to investigate the correlation between clinicopathological information of CRC patients and the levels of Cbl-b and c-Cbl. Materials and Methods: Quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR) method was used to evaluate the expression levels of Cbl-b and c-Cbl in 45 colorectal tumor tissues and 45 adjacent control tissues. Furthermore, we analyzed the diagnostic power of Cbl-b and c-Cbl by plotting receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results: Our results showed that the expression levels of Cbl-b and c-Cbl were significantly increased in CRC patients compared to the adjacent control group (P<0.003, P<0.004). Analysis of clinicopathological features of CRC patients revealed that the expression of Cbl-b and c-Cbl was associated differently with TMN stage, LVI+ (P<0.0003, P<0.0001) (P<0.003, P<0.07). Conclusion: These results indicate that the levels of Cbl-b and c-Cbl may serve as potential diagnostic indicators for CRC.