Expression and Clinical Significance of SOX9 in Renal Cell Carcinoma, Bladder Cancer and Penile Cancer.

BACKGROUND

Novel molecular markers are important diagnostic tools for the assessment of cancer progression and evaluation of effectiveness of the treatment. SOX9, a key regulator of developmental processes, is overexpressed in various neoplasms, such as prostate, breast, and colorectal cancers. However, the utilization of SOX9 as a biomarker for other urological cancers has not yet been investigated.

METHODS

In the present study, paired patient tissue microarrays were analyzed by immunohistochemistry, and the SOX9 protein expression was quantitated as immunoreactive scores in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), bladder cancer (BCa), and penile cancer (PC).

RESULTS

In comparison with normal tissues, SOX9 protein expression was significantly upregulated in RCC (p < 0.001) and BCa (p < 0.001), and significantly correlated with the advanced pathological grade (RCC: p = 0.023) and clinical stage (RCC: p = 0.022 and BCa: p = 0.046) of patients. Based on the mRNA level in the TCGA dataset, SOX9 was upregulated in RCC with gender (p = 0.027), advanced pathological grade (p = 0.003) and advanced clinical stage (p = 0.001). Kaplan-Meier survival curves revealed that RCC patients with high SOX9 levels had shorter survival (p < 0.001). Further, high SOX9 expression was an independent prognostic factor for RCC patients (hazard ratio 0.056, 95% confidence interval 0.607-1.184; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest that SOX9 may play an important role in tumor progression of RCC and BCa and it may be used as a biomarker of this malignancy.