In this study, we evaluated the association between Bmi-1 and RKIP and outcome of gastric cancer through clinical data analysis and in vitro experiments.
High levels of Bmi-1 in gastric cancer patients are significantly associated with better overall survival (P = 0.024) based on the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis.
In Asian cases, high expression of Bmi-1 was associated with poor OS in oesophageal carcinoma (HR=1.93, 95% CI 1.52-2.46), gastric cancer (HR=1.50, 95% CI 1.22-1.85), lung cancer (HR=1.73, 95% CI 1.05-2.85), cervical cancer (HR=2.80, 95% CI 2.26-3.47) and colorectal cancer (HR=3.36, 95% CI 2.19-5.15), rather than in breast cancer and HCC.
Our study highlights critical roles for Bmi-1 in gastric cancer, and suggests that Bmi-1 nuclear localization could be an important marker for the diagnosis of gastric cancer.
RT-PCR and Western blotting showed that Bmi-1 was up-regulated at both the transcriptional and translational levels in the GC tissues compared with the adjacent non-cancerous tissues.