High FAM111B expression predicts aggressive clinicopathologic features and poor prognosis in ovarian cancer

Fang Wei; Guoyu Yu; Chaozeng Si; Tengfei Chao; Huihua Xiong; Lihong Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.tranon.2023.101659

High FAM111B expression predicts aggressive clinicopathologic features and poor prognosis in ovarian cancer

Transl Oncol. 2023 Jun:32:101659. doi: 10.1016/j.tranon.2023.101659. Epub 2023 Mar 22.

Authors

Fang Wei¹, Guoyu Yu², Chaozeng Si³, Tengfei Chao¹, Huihua Xiong¹, Lihong Zhang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
² Department of Oncology, Xiangyang No.1 People's Hospital, Hubei University of Medicine, Xiangyang, Hubei, China.
³ Information Center, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Oncology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China. Electronic address: lihongzhang@hust.edu.cn.

Abstract

Backgrounds: Ovarian cancer (OC) is the second most common gynecological tumor with the highest mortality rate worldwide. High FAM111B expression has been reported as a predictor of poor prognosis in other cancers, but its correlation with OC has not been reported.

Methods: Immunohistochemistry of tissue microarrays was performed to detect FAM111B expression levels in 141 OC patient tissues. The prognostic value of FAM111B was determined by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, and correlations between FAM111B expression and clinicopathologic features were investigated by the Clu-square test. The significance of FAM111B expression was verified bioinformatically using the Gene Expression Omnibus database. Protein-protein interaction were performed to explore downstream mechanisms of FAM111B in OC.

Results: Among 141 OC patients, FAM111B was positively expressed in 87.23%, 58.16%, and 87.94%; and highly expressed in 8.51%, 17.02%, and 19.86%, as evaluated by cytoplasmic, nuclear, and combined cytoplasmic/nuclear staining. FAM111B expression was positively correlated with the expression of tumor protein markers KI67, EGFR, and PDL-1. Patients with high FAM111B expression had aggressive clinicopathologic features and shorter overall survival (P value 0.0428, 0.0050, 0.0029) and progression-free survival (P value 0.0251, 0.012, 0.0596) compared to the low FAM111B expression group for cytoplasmic, nuclear, and combined cytoplasmic/nuclear groups, respectively. These results were verified using patient data from the Gene Expression Omnibus. Seventeen genes co-expressed with FAM111B were primarily involved in "negative regulation of histone modification", "hippo signaling" and "inner ear receptor cell differentiation".

Conclusions: High FAM111B expression may serve as a novel prognostic predictor and molecular therapeutic target for OC.

Keywords: Clinicopathologic feature; FAM111B; Immunohistochemistry; Ovarian cancer; Prognosis.