TMEM8B-a protein is the longer, predominant isoform of the TMEM8B gene product, which is a tumor metastasis suppressor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and lung cancer.
Several groups reported that NGX6 gene was down-regulated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), gastric cancer, lung cancer, liver cancer, and colorectal cancer and even less in the carcinomas with metastasis.
As a novel candidate metastasis suppressor gene, Nasopharyngeal carcinoma-associated gene 6 (NGX6) is involved in cellular growth, cell cycle progression and tumor angiogenesis.
We further analyzed the tissue microarray, which contained 154 NPC biopsies and 70 non-NPC biopsies, and found that NGX6a was significantly downregulated in NPC and associated with tumor metastasis.
Moreover, a trend was shown toward metastasis status and primary site in colorectal carcinomas with NGX6 promoter methylation (p = 0.056 and P = 0.067, respectively).
Patients with lymph node and/or distance metastasis had much higher down-regulation rate of NGX6 than patients without metastases (93.8 % vs 55.6 %, P<0.05).
Patients with lymph node and/or distance metastasis had much higher down-regulation rate of NGX6 than patients without metastases (93.8 % vs 55.6 %, P<0.05).