title: Neuropilin-1 is overexpressed in osteosarcoma and contributes to tumor progression and poor prognosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Neuropilin (NRP)-1, a co-receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), plays an important role in angiogenesis and malignant progression of many cancers. However, the involvement of NRP-1 in osteosarcoma is not completely understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression pattern and clinical significance of NRP-1 in human osteosarcoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  NRP-1 mRNA and protein expression levels were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot assays, respectively, using 166 pairs of osteosarcoma and noncancerous bone tissues. Then, the association of NRP-1 expression with clinicopathological factors or survival of osteosarcoma patients was further evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  RT-PCR and Western blot assays revealed that NRP-1 expression in osteosarcoma tissues was significantly higher than that in corresponding noncancerous bone tissues at both mRNA and protein levels (both P < 0.001). In addition, high NRP-1 expression more frequently occurred in osteosarcoma tissues with advanced clinical stage (P = 0.006), positive distant metastasis (P = 0.01) and poor response to chemotherapy (P = 0.006). Moreover, osteosarcoma patients with high NRP-1 expression had significantly shorter overall survival and disease-free survival (both P < 0.001) when compared with patients with the low expression of NRP-1. On Cox multivariate analysis, NRP-1 overexpression was an independent and significant prognostic factor to predict poor overall survival and disease-free survival (both P = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first study to reveal that NRP-1 overexpression may be related to the prediction of metastasis potency, response to chemotherapy and poor prognosis for osteosarcoma patients, suggesting that NRP-1 may serve as a prognostic marker for the optimization of clinical treatments.
authors: Orthopaedics Department, Xuhui Central Hospital, No.966, Middle Huaihai Road, Shanghai, 200031, China.
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Zhu
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Cai
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Tang
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Tang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D001859:Bone Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D039942:Neuropilin-1 / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D012516:Osteosarcoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D039942:Neuropilin-1