Prognostic value of TIGAR and LC3B protein expression in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

PurposeAutophagy, the process responsible for degrading cytoplasmic organelles to sustain cellular metabolism, has been associated with cancer initiation and progression. As TP53-induced glycolysis and apoptosis regulator (TIGAR) is among the important genes that can regulate autophagy, we aimed to investigate the correlation between the expression levels of TIGAR and the autophagy-related protein microtubule-associated protein 1 light chain 3 (LC3B), as well as their association with clinical outcomes, in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients.MethodsWe detected the expressions of TIGAR and LC3B in 182 NPC tissue samples via immunohistochemical staining.ResultsA significant correlation between TIGAR and LC3B expressions was identified (P=0.045). Moreover, survival analysis showed that TIGAR− or LC3B+ expression was associated with improved overall survival, local regional failure-free survival, distant failure-free survival, and failure-free survival rates, compared with TIGAR+ or LC3B− expression, respectively. Meanwhile, when combining TIGAR with LC3B expression in terms of prognostic value, patients with TIGAR+/LC3B− expression were significantly disadvantaged with regard to overall survival, local regional failure-free survival, distant failure-free survival, and failure-free survival compared with other groups based on the log-rank test and Cox regression analyses (all P<0.05).ConclusionTIGAR and LC3B may be novel biomarkers for predicting the prognosis of NPC patients and could be utilized as potential targets for future therapeutics aimed at treating NPC patients.