Expression significance of biomarker MORC4 in colorectal cancer patients and its relationship with pathological features and prognosis

BACKGROUND Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignant gastrointestinal tumors worldwide, with high incidence and mortality rates. AIM To investigate the expression significance of the chromatin-remodeling protein MORC family CW-type zinc finger 4 (MORC4) as a biomarker in CRC patients, and to explore its relationship with pathological features and prognosis. METHODS A total of 143 CRC specimens and 57 adjacent tissue specimens, surgically removed from our hospital between January 2020 and January 2021, were collected. MORC4 protein expression was assessed using immunohistochemistry after paraffin embedding. The relationship between MORC4 protein expression and clinicopathological characteristics of patients was analyzed. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were plotted to analyze the relationship between MORC4 protein expression and prognosis in CRC patients. RESULTS Compared with adjacent tissues, the expression rate of MORC4 protein in CRC tissues was significantly higher (P < 0.05). No significant difference was observed in the high expression rate of MORC4 protein in CRC tissues among patients of different gender, age, tumor location, tumor diameter, and primary tumor status (P > 0.05). However, significant differences were found in the high expression rate of MORC4 protein in patients with different degrees of differentiation, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, tumor-lymph node-metastasis stage, and serum carcinoembryonic antigen levels (P < 0.05). Compared with patients with low MORC4 expression, patients with high MORC4 expression had a worse prognosis (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION The upregulation of MORC4 expression in CRC patients is closely related to disease severity and prognosis, suggesting its potential as an evaluation biomarker, which warrants further investigation.