Overexpression of stathmin in oral squamous-cell carcinoma: correlation with tumour progression and poor prognosis

Abstract

Stathmin is an intracellular phosphoprotein that is overexpressed in a number of human malignancies. Our previous study using proteomic profiling showed that significant upregulation of stathmin occurs in oral squamous-cell carcinoma (OSCC)-derived cell lines. In the current study, to determine the potential involvement of stathmin in OSCC, we evaluated the state of stathmin protein and mRNA expression in OSCC-derived cell lines and human primary OSCCs. A significant increase in stathmin expression was observed in all OSCC-derived cell lines examined compared to human normal oral keratinocytes. In immunohistochemistry, 65% of the OSCCs were positive for stathmin, and no immunoreaction was observed in corresponding normal tissues. Real-time quantitative reverse transcriptase -polymerase chain reaction data were consistent with the protein expression status. Moreover, stathmin expression status was correlated with the TNM stage grading. Furthermore, we found a statistical correlation between the protein expression status and disease-free survival (P ¼ 0.029). These results suggest that expression of stathmin could contribute to cancer progression/prognosis, and that stathmin may have potential as a biomarker and a therapeutic target for OSCC.

Overexpression of stathmin1 in the diffuse type of gastric cancer and its roles in proliferation and migration of gastric cancer cells

“…To evaluate the anti-stathmin1 antibody in our lab, we performed immunohistochemistry using oral squamous cancer tissue. Stathmin1 was expressed in invading oral cancer cells ( Figure 1A), which was consistent with the previous report (Kouzu et al, 2006). In normal gastric mucosa, it was difficult to detect stathmin1 expression; however, we clearly observed cytoplasmic expression of stathmin1 in gastric cancer tissue and in metastatic gastric cancer cells (Figure 1).…”

Overexpression of stathmin 1 is a poor prognostic biomarker in non-small cell lung cancer

“…19,20 In this study, overexpression of STMN1 was found to closely link to tumor differentiation, tumor size, N stage, and TNM stage. This result suggests that STMN1 could have a major role in tumor progression and dissemination.…”

Clinicopathological and biological significance of mitotic centromere-associated kinesin overexpression in human gastric cancer

“…As for these regulators in cancer cells, the catastrophe factors of MTs such as oncoprotein (Op)18/ stathmin were reported to be overexpressed in a number of human malignancies, and to be associated with cancer progression and prognosis (Roos et al, 1993;Bieche et al, 1998a, b;Brattsand, 2000;Chen et al, 2003;Moore and Wordeman, 2004;Kouzu et al, 2006). (C) Cell cycle analysis of MCAK transfectants and mock-transfected cells after 24 h of serum starvation followed by 18 h serum feeding with 10% FBS.…”