Neurexophilin and PC‐esterase domain family member 4 (NXPE4) and prostate androgen‐regulated mucin‐like protein 1 (PARM1) as prognostic biomarkers for colorectal cancer

Abstract Owing to the high morbidity and mortality, novel biomarkers in the occurrence and development of colorectal cancer (CRC) are needed nowadays. In this study, the CRC‐related datasets were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. After screening the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in R software, a total of 238 upregulated and 199 downregulated DEGs were revealed simultaneously. Then the Kaplan‐Meier survival analysis and Cox regression analysis were used to reveal the prognostic function of these DEGs. Neurexophilin and PC‐esterase domain family member 4 ( NXPE4 ) and prostate androgen‐regulated mucin‐like protein 1 ( PARM1 ) were two outstanding independent overall survival (OS) and relapse‐free survival (RFS) prognostic genes of CRC in TCGA database. We next verified the expression of NXPE4 and PARM1 messenger RNA (mRNA) levels were significantly lower in CRC tumor tissue than in the adjacent noncancerous tissue in our clinical samples, and NXPE4 mRNA expression level was related to the tumor location and tumor size, while PARM1 was related to tumor location, lymph nodes metastasis, and tumor size. This study demonstrated that NXPE4 and PARM1 might be two potential novel prognostic biomarkers for CRC.