title: Evaluation of HOXB13 as a molecular marker of recurrent prostate cancer.
abstract: Many patients with prostate cancer have disease recurrence following surgical removal of tumors and fail to respond to androgen ablation therapy. Despite the existence of a number of clinical/pathological factors, it is not possible to predict which patients will fall into this category. The results of our previous studies demonstrated that the HOXB13 homeodomain protein plays a key role in the development of prostate cancer and the progression of this malignancy. In addition, HOXB13 has been reported to predict estrogen-resistant breast cancer tumors. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether HOXB13 could be used as a molecular marker to predict prostate cancer recurrence. To examine the role of HOXB13 as a molecular marker with clinical/pathological data, the expression of HOXB13 was compared using immunohistochemistry in 57 organ-confined prostate cancer tumors obtained by radical prostatectomy. There was no significant correlation between the expression of HOXB13 and most clinical/pathological parameters, including tumor margin, invasion, pathological stage and risk level. The HOXB13 expression levels correlated with the Gleason score and there was a positive correlation with the pre-operative prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels. Accordingly, the tumor specimens from 4 patients who ultimately had biochemical failure (PSA >0.2 ng/ml), all showed a high expression of HOXB13, while their risk levels were either intermediate or high. This is the first study to report that HOXB13, together with other clinical/pathological factors, can be used as a molecular marker to predict the progression of prostate cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Chonnam National University Medical School                     and Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Gwangju 501-190, Republic                     of Korea.
authors.forename: Tae-O
authors.initials: TO
authors.lastname: Jeong
authors.forename: Kyung-Jin
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Nguyen Thi
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Xuan Nguyen
authors.forename: Young-Rang
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Min Soo
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sang Don
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Soo Bang
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.forename: Chaeyong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jung
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000592:standards; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D012008:Recurrence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C484414:HOXB13 protein, human; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen