Low expression of CDK5RAP3 and DDRGK1 indicates a poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer

AIM: To investigate the effects of different levels of expression of CDK5RAP3 and DDRGK1 on long-term survival of patients undergoing radical gastrectomy. METHODS: The expression of CDK5RAP3 and DDRGK1 was detected by immunohistochemistry in 135 patients who received standard gastrectomy were enrolled in the study. Western Blot was used to detect the expression of CDK5RAP3 and DDRGK1 in gastric cancer and its adjacent tissues and cell lines. The correlations between the expression of CDK5RAP3 and DDRGK1 and clinicopathological factors were analyzed, and the value of each parameter to the prognosis of the patients was compared. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to compare the accuracy of the prediction of clinical outcome by the parameters. RESULTS: CDK5RAP3 and DDRGK1 expression was down-regulated in the gastric cancer compared to its respective adjacent non-tumor tissues. The expression of CDK5RAP3 was closely related to the age of the patients (P = 0.035) and the T stage of the tumor (P = 0.017). The expression of DDRGK1 was correlated with the sex of the patients (P = 0.080), the degree of tumor differentiation (P = 0.036), the histological type (P = 0.036) and the N stage of the tumor (P = 0.014). Low expression CDK5RAP3 or DDRGK1 is a poor prognostic factor for gastric cancer patients. Prognostic analysis showed that the co-expression of CDK5RAP3 and DDRGK1 was an independent prognostic factor correlating with the overall survival of gastric cancer patients. Combined expression analysis of CDK5RAP3 and DDRGK1 may provide a more accurate prognostic value for overall survival. CONCLUSION: The co-expression of CDK5RAP3 and DDRGK1 is an independent prognostic factor for gastric cancer, which can provide a more accurate model for the long-term prognosis.