Upregulation of homeobox gene is correlated with poor survival outcomes in cervical cancer

Abstract

HOX family members encode transcription factors crucial for embryogenesis and may be associated with carcinogenesis. Here, we evaluated the expression of 39 HOX genes in cervical cancer by using clinicopathological information and gene expression data of 308 patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Correlations between mRNA expression of HOX family members and clinicopathological variables were explored. Seventy-three (23.7%) patients died during the follow-up period (median, 22.0 months). Overall mortality was significantly associated with advanced FIGO stage, lymph node metastasis, lymphovascular invasion, and increased HOXA1, HOXA5, HOXA6, and HOXC11 mRNA expression. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis revealed that overall survival was significantly shorter in patients with high HOXA rather than low HOXA expression (HOXA1, P = 0.012; HOXA5, P = 0.008; and HOXA6, P = 0.006). Upregulated HOXA1, HOXA5, and HOXA6 expression are significantly correlated with unfavorable overall survival and increased mortality in cervical cancer patients. Therefore, HOXA expression is a potential cervical cancer prognostic indicator.

circEIF4G2 modulates the malignant features of cervical cancer via the miR‑218/HOXA1 pathway

“…These previous studies observed that HOXA1 serves as an oncogene, which is able to promote cell growth, invasion and metastasis. A recent study by Eoh et al (26) demonstrated that upregulation of HOXA1 is associated with poor survival rate in patients with in CC. In the present study, HOXA1 knockdown was able to reverse the effects of the miR-218 inhibitor on CC cells, and circEIF4G2 was able to promote cell proliferation and migration via the miR-218/HOXA1 pathway.…”

A Case of Identity: HOX Genes in Normal and Cancer Stem Cells

“…Indeed, upregulation of HOX genes that are normally expressed in undifferentiated cells drives oncogenesis, whereas downregulation of HOX genes that are normally expressed in differentiated tissues results in the abolition of their function as tumor suppressors [57]. An altered expression of defined HOX clusters is found in different cancers, including alteration of HOXA genes in breast and cervical cancers, HOXB in colon cancer, HOXC in prostate and lung cancers, and HOXD in colon and breast cancer [58,59]. The involvement of HOX genes in cancer is therefore complex, with mechanisms of deregulation of specific HOX genes differing among cancer types [55].…”

Quantitative Analysis of Differential Expression of HOX Genes in Multiple Cancers

“…The genes marked in * bold in Table 2 and in Table S3 are those that met these 2 criteria. These genes were already suggested for consideration as prognostic biomarkers in previous studies (selected references are listed in Table S12 [ 34 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]).…”