Up-regulation of the IRX2 gene predicts poor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Jinyuan Si; Yongfeng Si; Benjian Zhang; Guiping Lan; Jiazhang Wei; Bo Huang; Zhuoxia Deng; Weiming Xiong; Qiuhang Zhang

Up-regulation of the IRX2 gene predicts poor prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Int J Clin Exp Pathol. 2018 Aug 1;11(8):4073-4082. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Jinyuan Si¹, Yongfeng Si², Benjian Zhang², Guiping Lan², Jiazhang Wei², Bo Huang², Zhuoxia Deng³, Weiming Xiong², Qiuhang Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Xuan Wu Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing, PR China.
² Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Oncology, The People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Nanning, PR China.
³ Institue of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, The People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Nanning, PR China.

PMID: 31949798
PMCID: PMC6962795

Abstract

Aberrant expression of the IRX2 gene contributes to the oncogenesis and progression of various cancers. In this study, we analyzed the clinical significance and the prognostic value of mRNA expression level of the IRX2 gene in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients, with the goal to find a novel prognostic biomarker for NPC. Tissue samples were collected prior to treatment from 71 NPC patients for the detection of mRNA expression level of a total of 31503 genes, with high throughput screening of the mRNA expression profile. The Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank test were used for univariate analyses to determine if the mRNA expression level of IRX2 and other 31502 genes, as well as clinical characteristics were of prognostic value for overall survival (OS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Regularized Cox regression was performed to test the contribution of prognostic factors to OS, DMFS, and DFS of NPC patients. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to test the independence of prognostic effect of IRX2 and other clinical features. The receiver operator characteristic curve was drawn and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to evaluate the predictive power of IRX2 gene. Univariate analyses showed a higher mRNA expression level of the IRX2 gene correlated with shorter OS (P = 0.001), DMFS (P = 0.003), and DFS (P = 0.007). Regularized Cox regression and Cox proportional hazard model analyses further showed that ahigher mRNA expression level of the IRX2 gene in the primary NPC was an independent prognostic factor for OS (Coxnet beta = 0.03, Cox proportion hazard model P = 0.038), DMFS (Coxnet beta = 0.018, Cox proportion hazard model P = 0.01) and DFS (Coxnet beta = 0.008, Cox proportion hazard model P = 0.029). The AUC showed that the mRNA expression level of the IRX2 gene is a significant predictor for predicting the OS (AUC value = 0.7105) and DMFS (AUC value = 0.7027) of NPC patients. Our results demonstrated that the IRX2 gene may be a novel independent unfavorable prognostic factor for NPC patients.

Keywords: IRX2 gene; Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; prognostic factor.