Downregulation of ring-finger protein 43 in glioma associates with poor prognosis

Ring-finger protein 43 (RNF43) has been identified as a RING-type E3 ubiquitin ligase. The overexpression of RNF43 results in a significant enhancement of cell growth, and knockdown of the expression of RNF43 by siRNAs exerts a growth-suppressing effect. RNF43 has been proposed as a tumor suppressor in colorectal cancers. However, its expression significance in glioma has not been well studied. In the present study, we found that the decreased expression of RNF43 was associated with poor prognosis by the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis (P < 0.001). Importantly, multivariate analysis suggested RN43 as an independent predictor of overall survival ([hazard ratio (HR) 0.547, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.382-0.784, P = 0.001]). Collectively, our study demonstrated that RNF43 could be served as a potential prognostic marker for patients with this deadly disease.