AEG-1 is associated with clinical outcome in neuroblastoma patients

Cancer Biomark. 2012;11(2-3):115-21. doi: 10.3233/CBM-2012-0268.

Abstract

Astrocyte elevated gene 1 (AEG-1), a novel gene that was cloned in 2002, has emerged in recent years as a potentially crucial mediator of tumor malignancy and aberrant elevation of AEG-1 expression frequently occurs in several human cancers, including breast cancer, prostate cancer, gastric cancer. However, whether AEG-1 deregulation also occurs in neuroblastoma remains unclear. In previous study we reported that AEG-1 was over expressed in neuroblastoma cell lines and knockdown of AEG-1 inhibits proliferation and enhancing chemo-sensitivity to cisplatin or doxorubicin in neuroblastoma cells. In this study, we investigated the expression of AEG-1 and evaluate its prognostic significance by correlating AEG-1 expression levels with clinic pathologic features and survival in 32 archived neuroblastoma patients We found that positive AEG-1 immunoreactivities were present in all neuroblastoma cases, 75% showed high expression of AEG-1. And high expression of AEG-1 was commonly seen in vascular endothelial cells and glandula in neuroblastoma samples. AEG-1 expression was strongly correlated with age at diagnosis (P=0.012), clinical stage (P=0.030) and tumor histology stage (P=0.041). However, our analyses did not show significant associations between AEG-1 expression and other clinical features including gender and primary tumor site. Importantly, our data presented in this report provide, for the first time, evidence that elevated expression of AEG-1 protein is correlated with poor prognosis and reduced survival of patients with neuroblastoma (P= 0.031). Overall, the data support the notion that AEG-1 might be used as a biomarker for neuroblastoma patients.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aged, 80 and over
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / biosynthesis*
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics
  • Cell Adhesion Molecules / biosynthesis*
  • Cell Adhesion Molecules / genetics
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Immunohistochemistry
  • Male
  • Membrane Proteins
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuroblastoma / genetics
  • Neuroblastoma / metabolism*
  • Neuroblastoma / pathology
  • RNA-Binding Proteins
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Survival Analysis
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • Cell Adhesion Molecules
  • MTDH protein, human
  • Membrane Proteins
  • RNA-Binding Proteins