High expression of RBM15 is associated with better prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a highly prevalent and malignant form of esophageal tumor associated with high rates of patient mortality for which there remains a persistent lack of effective targets for therapeutic interventional efforts. This study was developed with the goal of exploring the expression and functional role of RBM15 in ESCC. METHODS: This study was developed with the goal of exploring the expression and functional role of RBM15 in ESCC. To establish the prognostic and therapeutic significance of RBM15 in this cancer, data from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO), The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and UCSC Xena databases were leveraged. Immunohistochemical analyses were used to assess RBM15 expression in postoperative ESCC tumor tissue samples, and the correlations between such expression and patient outcomes were assessed. The effects of RBM15 on ESCC cell proliferative, migratory, and invasive activity were assessed with Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8) and Transwell assay approaches. Together, these experiments revealed RBM15 upregulation in ESCC relative to paracancerous tissues, while confirming that it was associated with favorable patient outcomes. RBM15 was also found to suppress ESCC cell proliferation, migration, and invasivity. RESULTS: We suggest that RBM15 may be a clinically relevant prognostic factor in ESCC such that new therapeutic interventions based on low levels of RBM15 have the potential to be developed for the improved management of ESCC in the future. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present study provide confirmation that high levels of RBM15 expression are protective and associated with better ESCC patient prognostic outcomes. Pan-cancer analyses performed herein also revealed the correlations between RBM15 expression and prognosis in various cancers.