Abstract:
Objective To clarify the expression characteristics of CXCL8 in colon cancer, systematically assess its diagnostic value, clinical relevance, and prognostic predictive efficacy, and explore its mechanism in regulating tumor progression through the immune microenvironment, providing a new biomarker for the diagnosis and treatment of colon cancer.
Methods RNA-Seq data from 478 colon cancer samples and 41 normal tissues in the TCGA database were integrated with clinical samples of 30 pairs of colon cancer and adjacent tissues from the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University. Bioinformatics, immunohistochemistry, cell experiments, and prognostic model analyses were conducted to evaluate the expression, function, and clinical significance of CXCL8 in colon cancer.
Results In the TCGA database, CXCL8 mRNA levels in cancer tissues were significantly higher in paired colon cancer and adjacent tissues (
P<0.001). Immunohistochemistry results revealed that the high expression rate of CXCL8 (score>4) in cancer tissues (43.33%, 13/30) was significantly higher than in adjacent tissues (13.33%, 4/30,
χ2= 4.948,
P=0.026). ROC curve analysis confirmed that CXCL8 had good diagnostic efficacy for colon cancer (AUC=0.89, 95%CI: 0.85-0.93), with higher diagnostic value in stage Ⅲ-Ⅳ patients (AUC=0.92). The high expression group of CXCL8 showed significantly shorter overall survival (HR=1.79,
P<0.001) and disease-specific survival (HR=2.21,
P<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that high expression of CXCL8 was an independent prognostic risk factor for colon cancer patients (HR=1.93, 95%CI: 1.04-3.58,
P=0.037). The nomogram based on CXCL8 predicted 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year survival rates with AUCs of 0.837, 0.821, and 0.792, respectively.
Conclusions CXCL8 is highly expressed in colon cancer, with both diagnostic and independent prognostic predictive value. It promotes the progression of colon cancer by remodeling the immune microenvironment and activating pro-cancer pathways, making it a potential biomarker for precise diagnosis and treatment of colon cancer.