High expression of Sox10 correlates with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Purpose: The aim of the study was to detect the expression of Sox10 in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and investigate the relationship between its expression and the clinicopathological characteristics of NPC patients. Patients and methods: Tumor specimens (n = 105) were retrospectively collected from patients with NPC diagnosed between 2004 and 2005 who presented at Hunan Cancer Hospital. Immunohistochemistry analyses were performed to characterize the expression of Sox10 in NPC. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses were employed to evaluate the prognosis of 105 NPC patients. Results: The results showed that Sox10 was markedly overexpressed in human NPC tissues. Analysis of clinicopathological parameters showed that high Sox10 expression was significantly correlated with the clinical stage (P = 0.032), T classification (P = 0.034), and lymph node metastasis (P = 0.03). Cox regression analyses further showed that Sox10 expression was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (P = 0.005). This is the first time Sox10 has shown its importance in predicting NPC progressiveness and survival outcomes. Conclusion: Sox10 serves as a potential biomarker for NPC patients. It may hopefully become a novel therapeutic target for NPC patients.