Prognostic significance of glucose-related protein 94 in colorectal cancer

Aims: The expression of glucose-related protein 94 (GRP94), a member of the heat shock protein 90 family, was correlated with a variety of clinicopathological factors and patient survival in a large colorectal cancer (CRC) cohort. We aimed to elucidate the role of GRP94 in the prognosis of CRC patients. Methods: Tissue microarray blocks were generated from 709 CRC samples and immunohistochemically stained for GRP94. Results: Of the 709 tumours, 164 (23.1%) and 545 (76.9%) were classified in the low and high expression groups, respectively. GRP94 expression was high in CRC cases with larger tumours (p = 0.005) and advanced pT stage (p = 0.021). GRP94 expression was higher in females than males (p = 0.024). In univariate and multivariate survival analyses, high GRP94 expression was unexpectedly associated with better overall survival in CRC patients younger than 65 years of age (p = 0.001) Conclusion: Our conflicting results indicate that GRP94 has the ability to switch between oncogenic and tumour-suppressive roles depending on the conditions and microenvironment of the tumour cells. Furthermore, GRP94 could be a candidate biomarker to predict better prognosis in CRC patients.