Cytoplasmic poly(A) binding protein 4 is highly expressed in human colorectal cancer and correlates with better prognosis.

Cytoplasmic poly(A) binding protein 4 (PABPC4) is an RNA-processing protein that plays an important role in the regulation of gene expression. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression pattern and identify the potential clinical significance of PABPC4 in colorectal cancer. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that 26.7% (27/101 patients) of primary colorectal tumors and 60.5% (23/38 patients) of corresponding adjacent, normal tissues showed high cytoplasmic expression of PABPC4, whereas expression was absent in 98% (43/44 patients) of distant, normal tissues. Using Kaplan-Meier analysis, we observed that the expression of PABPC4 was significantly correlated with disease-free survival and overall survival in patients with stage II and stage III colorectal cancer (P=0.022 and P=0.020, respectively). PABPC4 expression was positively associated with survival outcome, and may have predictive value in the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer. Taken together, our findings indicate that PABPC4 may play a role in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer.