ATP11A is a novel predictive marker for metachronous metastasis of colorectal cancer.

The adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporter-homologous gene ATP11A belongs to an extended family of adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette transporters. We analysed the ATP11A gene in 7 colorectal cancer cell lines and 95 paired cases of colorectal cancer and non-cancerous regions to demonstrate the importance of ATP11A expression in colorectal cancer prognosis. ATP11A was expressed in the 7 colorectal cancer cell lines. ATP11A mRNA expression was higher in colorectal cancer tissue than in corresponding normal tissue (P<0.001). Patients with high ATP11A expression showed a poorer disease-free survival rate compared to those with low expression (P<0.001), thus indicating that increase in ATP11A expression was an independent predictor of metachronous metastasis of colorectal cancer. The present study suggests that ATP11A is a useful predictive marker of metastasis in colorectal cancer patients.