Association of BCL9 expression with prostate cancer clinicopathological features and survival

Abstract

B-cell lymphoma 9 (BCL9) as a co-activator for β-catenin-mediated transcription is highly expressed in tumors. The aim of our study is to investigate the expression of BCL9, and its clinicopathological significance in prostate cancer (PCa). Immunohistochemistry was conducted to analyze the expression of BCL9 in 98 PCa samples and 20 benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) samples. The associations of BCL9 expression with clinicopathological features and prognosis in PCa patients were analyzed with various statistical methods, such as chi-square test, Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test. The positive rate of BCL9 was 53.1% (52/98) in prostate cancer group, and 25.0% (5/20) in benign group (P=0.022). In addition, BCL9 expression in PCa tissues was significantly associated with Gleason score (P=0.016), and biochemical recurrence (P=0.020). Moreover, Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the higher expression of BCL9 was correlated with shorter biochemical recurrence-free survival (P=0.037). However, BCL9 was not an independent prognostic predictor for biochemical recurrence-free survival in patients with PCa after the multivariate analysis was conducted (Hazard ratio =1.73, P=0.384). Our study demonstrates the up-regulation of BCL9 is associated with PCa's early diagnosis and malignant degree.