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Critical Role and Regulation of Transcription Factor FoxM1 in Human Gastric Cancer Angiogenesis and Progression

Departments of ¹ Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, ² Neurosurgery, ³ Cancer Biology, and ⁴ Pathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas

Requests for reprints: Keping Xie, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Unit 426, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Houston, TX 77030. Phone: 713-792-2828; Fax: 713-745-1163; E-mail: kepxie{at}mdanderson.org.

Key Words: FoxM1b • angiogenesis • metastasis • VEGF • stomach

The mammalian forkhead box (Fox) transcription factor FoxM1b is implicated in tumorigenesis. However, the presence of expression and role of FoxM1b in gastric cancer remain unknown. Therefore, we investigated FoxM1b expression in 86 cases of primary gastric cancer and 57 normal gastric tissue specimens. We further investigated the underlying mechanisms of altered FoxM1b expression in and the effect of this altered expression on gastric cancer growth and metastasis using in vitro and animal models of gastric cancer. We found weak expression of FoxM1b protein in the mucous neck region of gastric mucosa, whereas we observed strong staining for FoxM1b in tumor cell nuclei in various gastric tumors and lymph node metastases. A Cox proportional hazards model revealed that FoxM1b expression was an independent prognostic factor in multivariate analysis (P < 0.001). Experimentally, overexpression of FoxM1b by gene transfer significantly promoted the growth and metastasis of gastric cancer cells in orthotopic mouse models, whereas knockdown of FoxM1b expression by small interfering RNA did the opposite. Promotion of gastric tumorigenesis by FoxM1b directly and significantly correlated with transactivation of vascular endothelial growth factor expression and elevation of angiogenesis. Given the importance of FoxM1b to regulation of the expression of genes key to cancer biology overall, dysregulated expression and activation of FoxM1b may play important roles in gastric cancer development and progression. [Cancer Res 2009;69(8):3501–9]

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