High expression of guanine nucleotide-binding protein-like-3-like is associated with poor prognosis in esophageal cancer

Guanine nucleotide-binding protein-like-3-like (GNL3L) is required for processing ribosomal pre-rRNA and cell proliferation and is upregulated in many types of cancer. This study is aimed to investigate the clinical significance of GNL3L in esophageal cancer. The mRNA and protein expression levels of GNL3L were determined by using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry, respectively. GNL3L was localized in both cytoplasm and nucleus. The expression levels of GNL3L in esophageal cancer tissues were significantly higher than those in adjacent nonmalignant tissues. High GNL3L expression was associated with pathologic type and poor differentiation. Patients with high GNL3L expression had shorter overall survival (OS) than those with low GNL3L expression. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that GNL3L expression was an independently predictive factor for the OS of patient with esophageal cancer. The Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA) databases also showed that GNL3L was upregulated in esophageal cancer, which was closely associated with an unfavorable prognosis of patients with esophageal cancer. Taken together, our findings suggest that GNL3L is upregulated in esophageal cancer, which is linked to the progression of the disease. As a result, GNL3L could be used as a biomarker for esophageal cancer.