Prognostic evaluation of glycogen synthase kinase 3A (GSK3A) mRNA expression in colon cancer patients

Abstract

Introduction: GSK3, a multifunctional serine/threonine kinase regulates cell-cycle progression, differentiation and apoptosis and its inhibition can have a tumor suppressor/promoter effect, depending on the cell type. There are conflicting reports of GSK3 in cell growth, but most studies have focused on GSK3β and very few on GSK3α in cancer. GSK3α regulates proliferation of melanoma and pancreatic and colon cancer cells, but the predictive role of GSK3A is not known in colon cancer. Material and methods: The prognostic role of GSK3A was assessed in colon cancer patients employing Kaplan-Meier plotter (KM plotter) database. Online ROC plotter tool was used to compare the GSK3A gene expression in colorectal cancer patients receiving any form of chemotherapy. Results: Current results show that higher GSK3A mRNA expression is significantly related to poorer Relapse Free Survival (RFS) in colon cancer patients. Assessment of GSK3A mRNA for different clinicopathological features like clinical stages, TP53 mutation, stage T and stage N highlighted the critical prognostic value of GSK3A mRNA in colon cancer. Discussion and conclusion: GSK3A will help to better predict colon cancer prognosis and to develop better treatment strategies for colon cancer patients and will be beneficial in combating the heterogeneity and complexity of colon cancer.