Upregulation of bone morphogenetic protein 1 is associated with poor prognosis of late-stage gastric Cancer patients.

Background: Gastric cancer is the eighth most common cancer in Taiwan, with a 40% 5-year survival rate. Approximately 40% of patients are refractory to chemotherapy. Currently, the anti-HER2 therapy is the only clinically employed targeted therapy. However, only 7% patients in Taiwan are HER2-positive. Identifying candidate target genes will facilitate the development of adjuvant targeted therapy to increase the efficacy of gastric cancer treatment.

Methods: Clinical specimens were analyzed by targeted RNA sequencing to assess the expression levels of target genes. Statistical significance of differential expression and correlation between specimens was evaluated. The correlation with patient survival was analyzed as well. In vitro cell mobility was determined using wound-healing and transwell mobility assays.

Results: Expression of BMP1, COL1A1, STAT3, SOX2, FOXA2, and GATA6 was progressively dysregulated through the stages of gastric oncogenesis. The expression profile of these six genes forms an ubiquitously biomarker signature that is sufficient to differentiate cancer from non-cancerous specimens. High expression status of BMP1 correlates with poor long-term survival of late-stage patients. In vitro, suppression of BMP1 inhibits the mobility of the gastric cancer cell lines, indicating a role of BMP1 in metastasis.

Conclusions: BMP1 is upregulated in gastric cancer and is correlated with poor patient survival. Suppression of BMP1 reduced gastric cancer mobility in vitro. Our finding suggests that anti-BMP1 therapy will likely augment the efficacy of standard chemotherapy and improve the treatment outcome.