The prognostic significance of OCT4 expression in patients with prostate cancer

Accumulating evidence suggests that OCT4 participates in tumorigenicity and malignancy in human cancers. However, the prognostic significance of OCT4 expression in prostate cancer (PCa) or predictive significance of OCT4 in docetaxel sensitivity in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of OCT4 expression in PCa. We retrospectively analyzed the clinical records and evaluated the OCT4 expression in 205 patients with PCa who underwent radical prostatectomy. We examined the change of OCT4 expression in 3 patients with CRPC who underwent transurethral resection for local progression before and after docetaxel chemotherapy. OCT4 expression was significantly associated with higher pathological T stage (P < .001). The 5-year prostate-specific antigen recurrence-free survival rate was 56.8% in patients with higher OCT4 expression and 90.6% in patients with lower OCT4 expression (P < .001). Multivariate analysis revealed that high OCT4 expression was an independent prognostic indicator of prostate-specific antigen recurrence (P < .001). Elevated strong OCT4 expression in residual CRPC cells after docetaxel chemotherapy was observed in all CRPC patients, compared with before chemotherapy in corresponding specimens. Higher OCT4 expression represents a clinically relevant predictor of patient prognosis in PCa and may be a new biomarker that will provide additional prognostic information in CRPC when treated with docetaxel.