Abstract 3629: HOXA10 expression profiles in prostate cancer

Abstract

Abstract HOXA10 is a member of the homeobox gene family and is a transcription factor primarily involved in embryonic development. Perturbed HOX gene expression has been identified in numerous cancers and thus suggests that these genes may play important roles in diagnosis and treatment of cancer. We initially identified altered HOXA10 expression in prostate tumors form prostate-specific PTEN conditional knockout mice. HOXA10 is highly expressed in the normal prostate glands from wildtype and PTEN-mutant mice and gradually decreases with tumor development and decreased differentiation. However, focal expression of HOXA10 is observed in poorly differentiated tumors and is highly expressed in metastases. To determine clinical significance of HOXA10 in human prostate cancer, we examined HOXA10 expression by immunohistochemistry in matched normal and cancer specimens from prostatectomy cases. HOXA10 nuclear expression was measured according to intensity and distribution. Our analysis shows that HOXA10 is strongly expressed in benign glands and low expression is significantly correlated with Gleason grade (p<0.001), tumor differentiation (p<0.02), pathological stage (p<0.001) and PSA-failure (p<0.001). Expression of HOXA10 was also evaluated in human prostate cell lines and was strong in the benign prostatic hyperplasia BPH-1 human prostate cell line and weak to absent in the malignant human prostate cancer cell lines PC3, DU145 and LNCaP. These data show that HOXA10 is related to tumorigenesis of prostate cancer prostate cancer and warrants further investigation into the functional role of HOXA10 in tumor development. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3629. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-3629