Expression of the cancer stem cell marker OCT4 is associated with worse prognosis and survival in cutaneous melanoma

Abstract

Cutaneous melanoma has an aggressive clinical presentation, showing rapid rate of growth and metastatic dissemination due to the permanence of cancer stem cells. The present study was to evaluate the expression of the self-renewal regulatory factor and the clinical significance of the transcription factor OCT4 in melanoma. Melanoma tissues were stained by immunohistochemistry and the correlation between the expression of this marker was determined through clinical-pathological variables and survival outcomes. Positive expression of nuclear and cytoplasmic OCT4 was observed in 49% and 41.2% of cases, respectively. The positive expression of nuclear OCT4 in melanoma was significantly associated with prognostic factors, such as Breslow depth, Clark's level, ulceration and metastasis. Survival of patients was 56% compared to positive nuclear OCT4 expression and 94.2% when compared to the low expression of the gene. Nuclear OCT4 positive genotype indicated aggressive tumor behavior with a worse clinical outcome, which indicates OCT4 as a useful biomarker in the prognosis of melanoma. Melanoma Res 31: 439

Reactive Oxygen Species Regulation of Chemoresistance and Metastatic Capacity of Melanoma: Role of the Cancer Stem Cell Marker CD271

“…Despite SK-MEL-28 cells and primary sensitive cells weakly expressing CD271, the acquired resistance induced a huge rise in its presence, suggesting that it acts as a key regulator of the migratory phenotype, expressing transcription factors conferring metastasis and relapse, as EMT ones. High levels of ZEB1/Slug and Oct4 expression, as we showed here, certainly sustain an invasive phenotype in melanoma, including increased expression of vimentin [ 18 , 28 ]. In melanoma, it has been shown that ZEB1-mediated phenotype switching is associated with drug resistance (MAPK inhibitors) [ 29 ], as well as for positive Oct4 cells exhibiting stem cell-like features [ 30 ].…”

Dexamethasone Promotes a Stem-Like Phenotype in Human Melanoma Cells via Tryptophan 2,3 Dioxygenase

“…Oct4 expression in CSCs is associated with a more aggressive tumor phenotype ( Gidekel et al, 2003 ; Mohiuddin et al, 2020 ), and in melanoma cells, it is a marker of tumor-initiating cells, metastasis, and resistance to anticancer therapies ( Wang and Herlyn, 2015 ). NANOG and Oct4 overexpression is correlated with increase invasiveness of human melanoma cell lines ( Borrull et al, 2012 ) and NANOG up-regulation is associated with worse prognosis and survival in cutaneous melanoma ( Silva et al, 2021 ). Further, Sox2 is known to regulate self-renewal and tumorigenicity of melanoma cells ( Santini et al, 2014 ).…”