Periostin as a promising target of therapeutical intervention for colorectal cancer

The expression of periostin in the tissue of colorectal cancer patients and its correlation with clinical features were studied. Periostin expression was similar to 4 fold up-regulated in cancer tissues compared to adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Serum levels of periostin in patients were significantly elevated to 32.6 +/- 10.8 ng/mL vs 20.4 +/- 11.1 ng/mL in healthy volunteers. Higher preoperative serum periostin levels in patients were closely related to advanced-stage disease (stage III/IV), distant and lymph nodes metastasis. High level of periostin expression was detected in the SW480 human colon carcinoma cells, and could be down-regulated by small interfering RNAs (siRNA). The siRNA-mediated knockdown of periostin arrested the cell cycle at G0/G1 phase and induced apoptotic cell death in the SW480 cells. In conclusion, periostin is a promising prognostic and therapeutic target for colorectal cancer.