title: High Dickkopf-1 expression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma.
abstract: Although Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) has been demonstrated to be associated with tumorigenesis in various types of human tumors, a correlation between DKK1 and urothelial carcinoma (UC) has not been reported. In the present study, the correlation between DKK1 expression and UC progression was investigated. Seventy-five UC patients were enrolled. The expression of DKK1 in serum and UC tissue was detected by ELISA, real-time PCR and Western blotting. Prognostic significance was assessed by using Kaplan-Meier survival estimates and log-rank tests. The results showed that serum levels of DKK1 were significantly higher in the UC patients with muscle-invasive (p=0.0001) and high-grade tumors (p=0.00001) as compared to the controls. A high-serum DKK1 was also associated with poor disease-free survival in the UC patients (hazard ratio=2.44; 95% CI 1.10-5.40; p=0.028). Furthermore, DKK1 was also overexpressed in 93% (41/44) of the UC tissues. Therefore, the findings indicate that the expression of DKK1 is associated with UC progression.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Medical Research, ; Urology, and ; Institute of Molecular Biology, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi;
authors.forename: Cheng-Huang
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Hsiao-Yen
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Yuan-Hung
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Syue-Yi
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chun-Liang
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Tung
authors.forename: Jiann-DER
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Chang-Te
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Michael W-Y
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Cheng-DA
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Deching
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chang