Implication of Microsatellite Instability in Chinese Cohort of Human Cancers

Meiying Cui; Pan Li; Ying Mao; Lan Zhang; Peiyi Xia; Enjie Liu; Weiwei Wang; Jianying Zhang; Guozhong Jiang; Wencai Li

doi:10.2147/CMAR.S274187

Implication of Microsatellite Instability in Chinese Cohort of Human Cancers

Cancer Manag Res. 2020 Oct 19:12:10287-10295. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S274187. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Meiying Cui¹, Pan Li¹, Ying Mao¹, Lan Zhang¹, Peiyi Xia¹, Enjie Liu¹, Weiwei Wang¹, Jianying Zhang², Guozhong Jiang¹, Wencai Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, Mainland China; Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medicine, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People's Republic of China.
² State Key Laboratory of Esophageal Cancer Prevention & Treatment, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: Microsatellite instability (MSI) has been a hot topic in cancer research. Determining MSI status greatly aids tumor prognosis and treatment plans. However, MSI data for Asian cancer patients with prognostic information are scarce. Here, our aim was to clarify MSI status and its prognostic value in a large Chinese cohort with different tumors.

Patients and methods: Tissue samples from 600 Chinese cases, including 150 endometrial cancers, 150 colorectal cancers, 150 liver cancers and 150 gastric cancers, were used for IHC and MSI examinations. Two mononucleotide and three dinucleotide markers were used to analyze MSI status.

Results: In total,17.3% (26/150) of endometrial cancer patients showed positive MSI,10.0% (15/150) in colorectal cancer, 2.7% (4/150) in liver cancer, and 2.7% (4/150) in gastric cancer. Tumor location (P < 0.001 for colorectal cancer) and clinical stage (P =0.038 for gastric cancer) showed significant correlations with MSI status in gastrointestinal carcinogenesis. The mismatch repair (MMR) deficiency was observed in 20 colorectal cases (13.3%) and was significantly more frequent in the MSI-positive group (P < 0.001). Interestingly, the prevalence of MSI-H was mostly occurred in early-stage tumors, and none was in late stage (stage IV). Meanwhile, low clinicopathological stage had significant correlation with longer survival in multiple cancers here.

Conclusion: The incidence of microsatellite instability varies among different cancer types. And the prevalence of MSI-H mostly occurred early clinicopathological stage. In addition, our study provided a large Asian cohort screened by five loci PCR method and significantly increased knowledge on the prognostic significance of MSI in Asia.

Keywords: colorectal cancer; endometrial cancer; gastric cancer; liver cancer; microsatellite instability.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81272371 and No.U1904148), the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (No. 2018ZX10302205), Zhengzhou Major Project for Collaborative Innovation (Zhengzhou University, No. 18XTZX12007), and the Youth Innovation Fund of The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University to Wei-Wei Wang.