Prognostic value of syndecan-1 expression in patients treated with radical prostatectomy

To investigate the association of syndecan-1 expression with pathological features and disease progression in patients treated with radical prostatectomy (RP) as syndecan-1 plays a role in the regulation of cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation and its expression is altered in various malignancies.

Syndecan-1 immunostaining was performed on a tissue microarray containing cores from 232 consecutive patients treated with RP and bilateral lymphadenectomy for clinically localized prostatic adenocarcinoma. Patients were categorized as having features of aggressive progression if they had evidence of metastases, an after progression prostate-specific antigen (PSA) doubling time of < 10 months, and/or failure to respond to local salvage radiation therapy. Expression was defined as > or = 10% cells staining for syndecan-1.

Syndecan-1 was expressed in 86 patients (37.1%). Expression of syndecan-1 was associated with higher PSA levels (P = 0.004), higher pathological Gleason sum (P = 0.027) and lymph nodes metastases (P = 0.027). Patients with syndecan-1 expression were at significantly greater risk of PSA-progression after surgery (P = 0.034) in univariate but not in multivariate analysis. Patients with features of aggressive progression (n = 22) were more likely to express syndecan-1 than those with features of nonaggressive progression (63.6% vs 36.4%, P = 0.010). Patients with syndecan-1 expression were at significantly greater risk of aggressive progression after surgery (P = 0.005) in univariate but not in multivariate analysis.

Expression of syndecan-1 was associated with established features of biologically aggressive prostate cancer and PSA-progression in univariate analysis. These findings suggest a role for syndecan-1 in prostate carcinogenesis and progression.