hERG1 Potassium Channels: Novel Biomarkers in Human Solid Cancers

Table 1

hERG1 expression and role in cell lines and in human solid tumors.

Tumor type	Cell lines	Human tumors
Breast cancer	hERG1 current is blocked by Tamoxifen [23]; induction of cell senescence [24]	—
Endometrial cancer	—	Overexpression [9]
Ovarian cancer	Expression [13]	Overexpression [13]; methylation and downregulation [25]
Esophageal cancer	—	Overexpression in EA and BE [11], ESCC [26]; malignant progression [11]
Gastric cancer	Cell proliferation [27]; apoptosis [28]	Grading, TNM stage, serosal, and venous invasion [29, 30]; Lauren’s intestinal type, localization (fundus), low grading, and early stages (TNM I and II) [31]; in early stage (T1) HERG1 expression identified high-risk patients [31]
Colorectal cancer	Invasiveness [10]; chemosensitivity [32]; regulation of VEGF-A secretion [33]	++, correlation with invasive phenotype [10]; independent negative prognostic factor in stage I and II CRC [34]
Pancreatic cancer	Overexpression [12]	Lymphnode involvement, grading, and TNM stage I [12]
Lung cancer	Cell proliferation [35]	—

EA: esophageal adenocarcinoma; BE: Barrett’s esophagus; ESCC: esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; TNM: tumor node metastasis; VEGF-A:vascular endothelial growth factor.