Decreased expression of prolyl hydroxylase 1 is associated with poor prognosis in colorectal cancers

BACKGROUND: Prolyl hydroxylase 1 (PHD1) is a prognostic marker in several cancers.

AIMS AND SCOPES: This study was undertaken to elucidate the clinical relevance of PHD1 in colorectal cancer (CRC) prognosis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We compared PHD1 expression on a tissue microarray (TMA) containing samples from 1800 CRCs with corresponding clinicopathological tumor variables and patient survival.

RESULTS: While PHD1 staining was always high in benign colorectal epithelium, high PHD1 staining was detectable in only 71.8% of CRCs. Low PHD1 staining was associated with advanced tumor stage (p = 0.0101) and shortened overall survival in CRC patients (p = 0.0011). In a multivariable analysis including tumor stage, histological type and PHD1 staining revealed tumor stage and histological type (p < 0.0001 each), but also PHD1 staining (p = 0.0202) to be independent prognostic markers for CRC.

CONCLUSIONS: In our cohort, loss of PHD1 expression independently identified a subset of CRC patients with poor overall survival and might, thus, be a promising prognostic marker. PHD1 targeting may even allow for specific therapeutic approaches for these patients.