Pyo JS, et al. - The clinicopathological significance and prognostic role of tumor progression locus 2 [TPL2; is a mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase kinase (MAP3K)] expression in colorectal cancer (CRC) was studied via immunohistochemistry. A significant correlation of high TPL2 expression with distant metastasis and low immunoscore was found. In the prediction of the prognosis of patients with CRC, the utility of TPL2 expression was indicated.

Methods

• Researchers used 262 archival paraffin-embedded CRC tissue samples to determine the correlations between TPL2 expression and clinicopathological parameters, including survival rate.
• They used immunoscore to assess the correlation between TPL2 expression and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes.

Results

• A total of 262 CRCs were analyzed, with high TPL2 expression found in 40.1%.  
• Relative to patients with low TPL2 expression, frequent distant metastasis were found in patients with high TPL2 expression.
• Data showed no significant correlation between high TPL2 expression and other clinicopathological parameters.
• A significant correlation of high TPL2 expression with low immunoscore was found.
• A significant correlation between high TPL2 expression and low immunoscore in only CRCs without distant metastasis was shown in subgroup analysis based on distant metastasis.
• Researchers observed a significant correlation of high TPL2 expression with poor overall survival.
• In both CRCs with and without distant metastasis, worse prognosis was demonstrated by CRCs with high TPL2 expression vs CRCs with low TPL2 expression (P=.034 and P=.010, respectively).