Clinical significance of OCT4 and SOX2 protein expression in cervical cancer
Open Access
- 26 December 2015
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in BMC Cancer
- Vol. 15 (1), 1-8
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-015-2015-1
Abstract
Cancer stem cell markers have become a major research focus because of their relationship with radiation or chemotherapy resistance in cancer therapy. Cancer stem cell markers including OCT4 and SOX2 have been found in various solid tumors. Here, we investigate the expression and clinical significance of OCT4 and SOX2 in cervical cancer. To define the clinical significance of OCT4 and SOX2 expression, we performed immunohistochemistry for OCT4 and SOX2 on 305 normal cervical epithelium samples, 289 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia samples, and 161 cervical cancer cases and compared the data with clinicopathologic factors, including survival rates of patients with cervical cancer. OCT4 and SOX2 expression was higher in cervical cancer than normal cervix (both p < 0.001). OCT4 overexpression was associated with lymphovascular space invasion (p = 0.045), whereas loss of SOX2 expression was correlated with large tumor size (p = 0.015). Notably, OCT4 and SOX2 were significantly co-expressed in premalignant cervical lesions, but not in malignant cervical tumor. OCT4 overexpression showed worse 5-year disease-free and overall survival rates (p = 0.012 and p = 0.021, respectively) when compared to the low-expression group, while SOX2 expression showed favorable overall survival (p = 0.025). Cox regression analysis showed that OCT4 was an independent risk factor (hazard ratio = 11.23, 95 % CI, 1.31 - 95.6; p = 0.027) for overall survival while SOX2 overexpression showed low hazard ratio for death (hazard ratio = 0.220, 95 % CI, 0.06–0.72; p = 0.013). These results suggest that OCT4 overexpression and loss of SOX2 expression are strongly associated with poor prognosis in patients with cervical cancer.Keywords
This publication has 43 references indexed in Scilit:
- Sox2 expression predicts poor survival of hepatocellular carcinoma patients and it promotes liver cancer cell invasion by activating SlugMedical Oncology, 2013
- Cancer Stem Cells: Targets and Potential Biomarkers for RadiotherapyClinical Cancer Research, 2011
- Coexpression of Oct4 and Nanog Enhances Malignancy in Lung Adenocarcinoma by Inducing Cancer Stem Cell–Like Properties and Epithelial–Mesenchymal TransdifferentiationCancer Research, 2010
- Expression of Sox2 in human cervical carcinogenesisHuman Pathology, 2010
- Progressive 3q Amplification Consistently Targets SOX2 in Preinvasive Squamous Lung CancerAmerican Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 2010
- Positive Correlations of Oct-4 and Nanog in Oral Cancer Stem-Like Cells and High-Grade Oral Squamous Cell CarcinomaClinical Cancer Research, 2008
- Sox2 is important for two crucial processes in lung development: Branching morphogenesis and epithelial cell differentiationDevelopmental Biology, 2008
- SOX2 is frequently downregulated in gastric cancers and inhibits cell growth through cell-cycle arrest and apoptosisBritish Journal of Cancer, 2008
- Isolation and In vitro Propagation of Tumorigenic Breast Cancer Cells with Stem/Progenitor Cell PropertiesCancer Research, 2005
- New type of POU domain in germ line-specific protein Oct-4Nature, 1990