GPR137 is a promising novel bio-marker for the prognosis of bladder cancer patients

OBJECTIVES: G protein-coupled receptor 137 (GPR137) was reported to be associated with several cancers, but its role in bladder cancer has not been reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate clinical significance of GPR137 in bladder cancer. METHODS: The expressions of GPR137 in pathological tissues and corresponding normal tissues from bladder cancer patients were detected via quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Western blot was performed to detect GPR137 expression in bladder cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues. Chi-Squared test analyzed the relationship between GPR137 expression and clinical features of bladder cancer patients. Additionally, Kaplan–Meier method was adopted in estimating overall survival of bladder cancer patients. Prognostic value of GPR137 was evaluated through Cox regression analysis. RESULTS: The expression of GPR137 mRNA and protein in pathological tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal tissues (P < .001). Moreover, similar result was found for bladder cancer patients and healthy controls (P < .001). And GPR137 expression was associated with tumor size (P = .006) and TNM stage (P = .012). The results of Kaplan–Meier analysis suggested that patients with high expression of GPR137 had shorter overall survival time than those with low expression (Log rank test, P = .001). Cox regression analysis indicated that GPR137 could act as an independent biomarker for bladder cancer prognosis (HR = 1.850, 95% CI = 1.272–2.689, P = .001). CONCLUSION: Abnormal expression of GPR137 is associated with bladder cancer and GPR137 is a potential biomarker for the therapy and prognosis of bladder cancer.