TRIP13 upregulation is correlated with poor prognosis and tumor progression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract Thyroid receptor-interacting protein 13 (TRIP13), a member of the AAA + ATPase super-family, has been proved to be upregulated and identified as a prognostic factor in multiple human cancers, However, the role of TRIP13 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and its clinic relevance remains unclear. In the present study, we performed database-mining and detected TRIP13 expression in 158 tissue samples (79 ESCC tissue and 79 matched adjunct non-cancerous tissues). We further investigated the correlation between TRIP13 expression and clinicopathological features and overall survival. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were applied to evaluate the potential prognostic value of TRIP13 in ESCC patients. In addition, the mechanisms involved in TRIP13 tumor-promoting effect was investigated. Data showed that TRIP13 expression was significantly increased in ESCC tissues, compared with the matched adjunct non-cancerous tissues. Expression of TRIP13 is significantly correlated with T status ( P  = 0.027), lymphatic metastasis ( P  =  0.017), and clinical stages of ESCC ( P = 0.009). Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that patients with high TRIP13 expression had poor overall survival ( P  = 0.0022). Multivariate analysis indicated that TRIP13 expression might be an independent prognostic factor in ESCC patients (HR, 1.778, 95% confidence interval = 0.959–3.296, P  =  0.028). Furthermore, downregulating TRIP13 in EC109 cell significantly attenuated the cell proliferation and progression, possibly by β-catenin regulated EMT pathway. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that TRIP13 might be a tumor promoting factor in ESCC and a promising prognostic indicator for ESCC patient.