Research
Increased expression of Golgi phosphoprotein-3 is associated with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis of prostate cancer
- † Equal contributors
1 Department of Pathology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, 510515, Tonghe, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
2 Department of Pathology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University, 510515, Tonghe, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China
3 Department of Pathology, the Forth Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
4 Department of Pathology, Guangzhou Red Cross Hospital, Guangzhou, China
5 Department of Urology, the Forth Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China
6 Department of Urology, Guangzhou Red Cross Hospital, Guangzhou, China
Diagnostic Pathology 2012, 7:127 doi:10.1186/1746-1596-7-127
Published: 24 September 2012Abstract
Background
To investigate the expression of Golgi phosphoprotein-3 (GOLPH3) in prostate cancer and determine its prognostic value.
Methods
Immunohistochemical staining for GOLPH3 was performed on tissue microarrays of 342 prostate patients. The correlation between GOLPH3 expression with its clinicopathologic factors was also analyzed in order to determine its prognostic significance.
Results
GOLPH3 expression of normal prostate tissues, benign prostate hyperplasia, high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, and hormone-dependent prostate cancer (HDPC) did not show any statistically significant difference. In contrast, statistically significant difference was reported in moderate/intense GOLPH3 expression in cases diagnosed with HDPC and castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) (P < 0.0005). Moderate /intense expression of GOLPH3 was associated with androgen independence (P = 0.012), higher Gleason score (P = 0.017), bone metastasis (P = 0.024), higher baseline prostate-specific antigen (PSA) (P = 0.038), and higher PSA nadir (P = 0.032). A significantly negative correlation was found between moderate/intense GOLPH3 expression and disease-free survival (DFS) (HR = 0.28, P = 0.012) and overall survival (OS) (HR = 0.42, P = 0.027). Univariated analysis indicated that moderate/intense GOLPH3 expression created a significantly prognostic impact in patients with CRPC. On the other hand, multivariate analysis indicated that GOLPH3 was a significantly independent prognostic factor of DFS (P = 0.027) in all prostate cancer patients.
Conclusions
In this study, it was discovered that the overexpression of GOLPH3 is associated with the transition of prostate cancer from hormone sensitive phase to hormone refractory phase. GOLPH3 might be an important prognostic factor of DFS and OS in patients with prostate cancer. In totality, GOLPH3 could be used as a novel candidate in devising a more effective therapeutic strategy to tackle CRPC.
Virtual slides
The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1452541171722856 webcite.
