title: Prognostic significance of Wilms tumor gene (WT1) mRNA expression in soft tissue sarcoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There have been several recent reports that Wilms tumor gene (WT1) mRNA is overexpressed in many types of neoplasms, and those results suggested that WT1 has oncogenic properties. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of WT1 mRNA expression in patients with soft tissue sarcoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Levels of WT1 mRNA expression were examined by quantitative, real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis in frozen tissue samples from 52 patients with soft tissue sarcoma. Various clinicopathologic factors were analyzed along with the disease-specific survival rate for correlations with WT1 mRNA expression levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The levels of WT1 mRNA expression in a variety of soft tissue sarcomas were significantly greater compared with the levels in normal soft tissue samples (P = .0212). No significant correlation was observed between the level of WT1 mRNA expression and clinicopathologic factors, including gender, age, primary tumor site, tumor depth, tumor size, histologic grade, and distant metastasis at initial presentation. The disease-specific survival rate for patients with high WT1 mRNA expression levels was found significantly poorer compared with the rate for patients with low WT1 mRNA expression levels (P = .0182). Moreover, multivariate analysis indicated that a high WT1 mRNA expression level was an independent, adverse prognostic factor for disease-specific survival (hazards ratio, 2.6; P = .0488).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  WT1 mRNA expression level can serve as a potent prognostic indicator in soft tissue sarcoma patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Yamada-oka, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsukasa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sotobori
authors.forename: Takafumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oji
authors.forename: Norifumi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Naka
authors.forename: Nobuhito
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Araki
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Myoui
authors.forename: Haruo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sugiyama
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshikawa
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D016162:Genes, Wilms Tumor; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012333:RNA, Messenger