A step ahead on CTHRC1, and not just reinventing the wheel!

The association of CTHRC1 with tumor progression is demonstrated in various human cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma, gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, GIST and colorectal cancer (1-3). In a meta-analysis done by Wang et al., the results revealed correlation of CTHRC1 expression with TNM stage in gastric cancer, breast cancer, and hepatocellular carcinoma (4). It indicated CTHRC1’s role as a biomarker for prognosis of cancer patients by showing that patients with higher CTHRC1 expression had decreased overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) which was statistically significant (4).