Increased PTPRA expression leads to poor prognosis through c-Src activation and G1 phase progression in squamous cell lung cancer

PTPRA is reported to be involved in cancer development and progression through activating the Src family kinase (SFK) signaling pathways, however, the roles of PTPRA in the squamous cell lung cancer (SCC) development are unclear. The purpose of this study was to clarify the clinical relevance and biological roles of PTPRA in SCC. We found that PTPRA was upregulated in squamous cell lung cancer compared to matched normal tissues at the mRNA (N=20, P=0.004) and protein expression levels (N=75, P<0.001). Notably, high mRNA level of PTPRA was significantly correlated with poorer prognosis in 675 SCC patients from the Kaplan-Meier plotter database. With 75 cases, we found that PTPRA protein expression was significantly correlated with tumor size (P=0.002), lymph node metastasis (P=0.008), depth of tumor invasion (P<0.001) and clinical stage (P<0.001). The Kaplan-Meier plot suggested that high expression of PTPRA had poorer overall survival in SCC patients (P=0.009). Multivariate Cox regression analysis suggested that PTPRA expression was an independent prognostic factor in SCC patients. In the cellular models, PTPRA promotes SCC cell proliferation through modulating Src activation as well as cell cycle progression. In conclusion, higher PTPRA level was associated with worse prognosis of SCC patients and PTPRA could promote the cell cycle progression through stimulating the c-Src signaling pathways.