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Overexpression of stathmin 1 confers an independent prognostic indicator in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

Data mining on public domain identified that stathmin 1 (STMN1) transcript was significantly higher expressed in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Also known as the oncoprotein 18, STMN1 performs an important function in regulating rapid microtubule remodeling of the cytoskeleton in response to the cellular conditions. Immunoexpression of STMN1 was retrospectively assessed in biopsies of 124 consecutive NPC patients without initial distant metastasis and treated with consistent guidelines. The outcome was correlated with clinicopathological features and patient survivals. Results indicated that high STMN1 expressions (50 %) were correlated with advanced age (p = 0.027), higher T stage (p = 0.003), and overall clinical stage (p = 0.006) by the 7th American Joint Committee of Cancer Staging. In multivariate analyses, high STMN1 expression emerged as an independent prognosticator for worse disease-specific survival (p = 0.001), distal metastasis-free survival (p = 0.003), and local recurrence-free survival (p = 0.006). Exogenous expression of E2F transcription factor 1 (E2F1) or/and its dimeric partner, transcription factor Dp-1 (TFDP1), notably induced the STMN1 protein level in a NPC-derived cell line, TW01. Accordingly, high STMN1 protein level is commonly associated with adverse prognosticators and confers tumor aggressiveness in patients with NPC, and its upregulation might be attributed to E2F1 and/or TFDP1 transactivation.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from Chi-Mei Medical Center and 102-2314-B-110-001 (National Science Council, Taiwan) to YL Shiue.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Medical Education, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan

    Han-Ping Hsu

  2. Department of Pathology, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan

    Chien-Feng Li & Tzu-Ju Chen

  3. National Institute of Cancer Research, National Health Research Institutes, Tainan, Taiwan

    Chien-Feng Li

  4. Department of Biotechnology, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Tainan, Taiwan

    Chien-Feng Li

  5. Department of Clinical Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Chien-Feng Li & Kwang-Yu Chang

  6. Department of Radiation Oncology, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Liouying, Tainan, Taiwan

    Sung-Wei Lee

  7. Institute of Biomedical Science, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Wen-Ren Wu, Chia-Jung Tsai & Yow-Ling Shiue

  8. Department of Biotechnology, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Shih-Shin Liang

  9. National Sun Yat-sen University, Institute of Biomedical Science, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Yow-Ling Shiue

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  1. Han-Ping Hsu
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Correspondence to Yow-Ling Shiue.

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Han-Ping Hsu and Chien-Feng Li contributed equally to this study.

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Hsu, HP., Li, CF., Lee, SW. et al. Overexpression of stathmin 1 confers an independent prognostic indicator in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Tumor Biol. 35, 2619–2629 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-1345-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-013-1345-3

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