Published online Mar 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i9.2783
Peer-review started: November 5, 2021
First decision: January 11, 2022
Revised: January 26, 2022
Accepted: February 15, 2022
Article in press: February 15, 2022
Published online: March 26, 2022
Ubiquilins (UBQLNs) are important factors for cell proteostasis maintenance. Abnormal UBQLNs expression can lead to many diseases, including cancer. Studies have found that the expression of Ubiquilin4 (UBQLN4) is associated with the development of several tumor types.
The association between UBQLN4 and cervical cancer has not been examined yet.
To investigate the expression of UBQLN4 in cervical cancer and to evaluate its correlation with disease prognosis.
Immunohistochemistry was performed to examine the expression of UBQLN4 in 117 cervical cancer tissues and 32 matching pericervical tissues. Paired t-test (two-tailed) was used to compare the differences between groups. We collected patients’ clinical characteristics, including age, histological grade, pathologic type, lymph node metastasis, and FIGO stage (2018) and compared them by chi-square test. All patients were followed for 5.5 to 6.8 years. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to compare the differences in the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) among the different groups.
Overexpression of UBQLN4 was observed in 70.9% (83/117) of all cervical cancer tissues and in 15.6% (5/32) of the paired parauterine tissues. The expression of UBQLN4 was associated with lymph node metastasis, poor differentiation, and advanced stage, but the difference was not significant. Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test results suggested the high expression of UBQLN4 was associated with short OS and PFS. UBQLN4 was also an independent prognostic marker for OS and PFS (P = 0.011 and P = 0.024, respectively).
The expression of UBQLN4 was increased in cervical cancer, and was associated with poor prognosis.
We not only propose a novel prognostic factor, but also improve the existing understanding of cervical cancer pathogenesis.