NUDT1: A potential independent predictor for the prognosis of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Abstract

The current study was aimed to investigate the association of nudix hydrolase 1 (NUDT1) levels with the prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. Western immunoblotting and qRT-PCR were used to detect the protein and mRNA levels of NUDT1 in 31 cases of OSCC and normal tissues. The paraffin-embedded 62 cases of OSCC and 18 normal tissues were collected, and the pathological alterations were assessed by immunohistochemistry. The prognosis of all patients was followed up. Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the survival rate, and Cox regression was used for multivariate analysis. Both the protein and gene levels of NUDT1 were statistically increased (P=.0007 and P<.0001) in the OSCC tissue and had a significant association with the histopathologic grades of OSCC (P<.0001 and P=.0223). Immunohistochemistry detection of NUDT1 in 62 human OSCC tissues and 18 normal control tissues showed that NUDT1 expression was significantly increased in OSCC tissue and showed a strong association with histopathologic grades (P<.0001) and tumor stage (P=.005). Patients with high NUDT1 expression exhibited poorer overall survival rate (OS) and tumor-specific survival rate (TSS) than those with low NUDT1 expression (P<.0001 and P=.0008), and NUDT1 was independent prognostic factors for OS and TSS (P<.0001 and P<.001). The expression level of NUDT1 might be used to predict the prognosis of OSCC patients.