Overexpression of special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 1 in endometrial cancer: a clinicopathologic study

Special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 1 (SATB1), as a genome organizer, serves important functions in tumor progression and metastasis. The SATB1 is overexpressed in various malignant tumors. However, the expression and prognostic value of SATB1 in endometrial cancer remain unknown. The aim of this study was to explore the prognostic values of SATB1 expression in endometrial cancer.

We investigated the expression of SATB1 in 172 untreated endometrial cancer tissues and 25 normal endometrial tissues through immunohistochemical staining. We also analyzed the association of SATB1 level with clinicopathologic parameters and determined its prognostic significance.

Special AT-rich sequence-binding protein 1 was expressed in 78 (45.3%) of the 172 endometrial cancer samples, but not in the normal endometrial samples. The positive expression of SATB1 was associated with clinicopathologic factors, such as International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage, histological grade, myometrial invasion depth, lymph node metastasis, vascular/lymphatic invasion, and recurrence. The patients with positive SATB1 expression had worse overall survival and disease-free survival rates than the patients with negative SATB1 expression (P < 0.001 for both). Multivariate Cox analysis indicated that SATB1 was an independent parameter for overall survival (hazards ratio, 2.928; 95% confidence interval, 1.072-7.994; P = 0.036) and disease-free survival (hazards ratio, 2.825; 95% confidence interval, 1.111-7.181; P = 0.029).

Results showed that SATB1 may be involved in tumor development and progression in endometrial cancer, may serve as a promising biomarker for predicting the prognosis of endometrial cancer patients, and thus may act as a novel target for treating endometrial carcinoma.