Proteomic characteristics reveal the signatures and the risks of T1 colorectal cancer metastasis to lymph nodes

The presence of lymph node metastasis (LNM) affects treatment strategy decisions in T1NxM0 colorectal cancer (CRC), but the currently used clinicopathological-based risk stratification cannot predict LNM accurately. In this study, we detected proteins in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor samples from 143 LNM-negative and 78 LNM-positive patients with T1 CRC and revealed changes in molecular and biological pathways by label-free liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and established classifiers for predicting LNM in T1 CRC. An effective 55-proteins prediction model was built by machine learning and validated in a training cohort (N=132) and two validation cohorts (VC1, N=42; VC2, N=47), achieved an impressive AUC of 1.00 in the training cohort, 0.96 in VC1 and 0.93 in VC2, respectively. We further built a simplified classifier with nine proteins, and achieved an AUC of 0.824. The simplified classifier was performed excellently in two external validation cohorts. The expression patterns of 13 proteins were confirmed by immunohistochemistry, and the IHC score of five proteins was used to build an IHC predict model with an AUC of 0.825. RHOT2 silence significantly enhanced migration and invasion of colon cancer cells. Our study explored the mechanism of metastasis in T1 CRC and can be used to facilitate the individualized prediction of LNM in patients with T1 CRC, which may provide a guidance for clinical practice in T1 CRC.