Broad dysregulation of gene expression control is a hallmark of cancer progression. Identifying the underlying master regulators that drive pathological gene expression is a key challenge in precision oncology. Here, we have developed a network analytical framework, named PRADA, that identifies oncogenic RNA-binding proteins through the systematic detection of coordinated changes in their target regulons. Application of this approach to data collected from clinical samples, patient-derived xenografts, and cell line models of colon cancer metastasis revealed the RNA-binding protein RBMS1 as a suppressor of colon cancer progression. We observed that silencing RBMS1 results in increased metastatic capacity in xenograft mouse models, and that restoring its expression blunts metastatic liver colonization. We have found that RBMS1 functions as a post-transcriptional regulator of RNA stability by directly binding and stabilizing ~80 target mRNAs. Measurements in more than 180 clinical samples as well as survival analyses in publicly available datasets, have shown that RBMS1 silencing and the subsequent downregulation of its targets are strongly associated with disease progression and poor survival in colon cancer patients. Together, our findings establish a role for RBMS1 as a previously unknown regulator of RNA stability and as a suppressor of colon cancer metastasis with clinical utility for risk stratification of patients.

RBMS1 suppresses colon cancer metastasis through targeted stabilization of its mRNA regulon