Prognostic implication of neuropilin-1 upregulation in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

ObjectiveAs a receptor for both vascular endothelial growth factors and semaphorin, neuropilin-1 (NRP-1) is reported to be up-regulated in cells of several cancers. However, its roles in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are still unclear. Therefore, the goal of this study was to investigate the expression pattern of NRP-1 in NPC tissues, to clarify the clinical significance of NRP-1 expression in NPC as well as the potential prognostic implication of NRP-1 expression.MethodsImmunohistochemistry was performed to detect the expression of NRP-1 in tumor tissue samples from 266 NPC patients. The association of NRP-1 protein expression with the clinicopathological characteristics and the prognosis of NPC were subsequently assessed.ResultsImmunohistochemical analysis showed that 176 of 266 (66.17%) paraffin-embedded archival NPC biopsies showed high expression of NRP-1, but no non-cancerous nasopharyngeal specimens showed positive expression of NRP-1. In addition, high NRP-1 expression was significantly associated with advanced clinical stage (P = 0.02), positive recurrence (P = 0.001) and metastasis status (P = 0.001) of NPC. Moreover, the NPC patients with higher NRP-1 expression had shorter overall survival, whereas patients with lower NRP-1 expression had better survival (P < 0.001). Furthermore, the multivariate analysis indicated that the overexpression of NRP-1 protein was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (P = 0.001) in NPC patients.ConclusionThese findings suggest for the first time that NRP-1 upregulation may be a novel biomarker for the prediction of advanced tumor progression and unfavorable prognosis in NPC patients who may benefit from alternative treatment strategy and targeted treatment.Virtual slidesThe virtual slides for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1507827881105018.

Calreticulin Promotes Migration and Invasion of Esophageal Cancer Cells by Upregulating Neuropilin-1 Expression via STAT5A

“…High NRP1 level is significantly associated with metastasis in patients with colon cancer (24), nasopharyngeal carcinoma (25), and esophageal adenocarcinoma (26). Interestingly, NRP1 promotes the invasion of the renal carcinoma 786-O cell line (27) and pancreatic cancer COLO-357 cell line (28), but suppresses the migration in another pancreatic cell line, PANC-1 (29).…”

Variation in Immunohistochemical Expression of Neuropilin 1 among Oral, Laryngeal and Skin SCC

“…VEGF appeared to act as an internal autocrine survival mediator in NRPs positive cancer cells (13) .The pattern of expression of NRP 1 in the present study, was cytoplasmic and/or membranous and this in agreement with most previous studies such as Yacoub et al in prostatic cancer (29) ; Ding et al in lung cancer (14) . Xu et al, in nasopharnx (30) . This is because NRP1 receptors are mainly found in cytoplasm and membranes of tumor cells (31) .…”

“…Then calculating the percentage of positive considered cells. The expression of NRP-1 in tissue sections was evaluated 0 when no positive stained cells observed, score 1 (weak) in case of < 30% of tumor cells were positive, score 2(moderate) when 30-60% of positive cells identified and score 3(strong) when< 60% of tumor cells counted (12) . Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS version 21 computer software in association with Microsoft Excel.…”

Circulating Soluble Neuropilin-1 in Patients with Early Cervical Cancer and Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Can Be Used as a Valuable Diagnostic Biomarker

“…NRP-1 overexpression has been reported in a variety of human cancers, including those derived from carcinomas of the prostate, kidney, bladder, stomach, colon, pancreas, breast, ovary, lung, liver, nasopharynx, and brain [ 5 , 12 – 17 ]. In most solid tumors, high expression of NRP-1 is significantly correlated with clinical stage, angiogenesis, node invasion, and poor overall survival [ 5 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 18 ]. Analyzing NRP-1 protein could be used to predict the shorter overall survival and relapse-free survival rate and related to the complete remission response in acute myeloid leukemia.…”