The increased expression of TCF3 is correlated with poor prognosis in Chinese patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Regulatory factors controlling stem cell identity and self-renewal are often active in aggressive cancers and are thought to promote cancer growth and progression. B-cell-specific transcription factor 3 (TCF3/E2A) is a member of the T-cell factor/lymphoid enhancer factor (TCF/LEF) transcription factor family that is central to regulating epidermal and embryonic stem cell identity. It has been reported that TCF3 was connected with the development and progression of a number of human cancers. In this study, we aimed to identify the expression of TCF3 in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and evaluate its clinical significance.

To investigate the expression of TCF3 in NPC and its relationship to prognosis.

An in vitro study.

We analysed the expression of TCF3 in NPC and in non-tumourous nasopharyngeal tissues by quantitative RT-PCR and Western blotting. The expression patterns of TCF3 in 117 archived paraffin-embedded NPC specimens were characterised by immunohistochemistry, and the correlation between the TCF3 protein expression and the clinicopathological features of NPC was analysed.

We observed that TCF3 had a higher expression in NPC than in non-tumourous nasopharyngeal tissues of 117 archived paraffin-embedded NPC specimens, and 80 (68.4%) biopsy tissues revealed high levels of TCF3 expression. Furthermore, statistical analyses demonstrated that the increased expression of TCF3 was closely related to clinical stage, locoregional recurrence and distant metastasis of NPC. NPC patients with high levels of TCF3 expression had a shorter survival time, whereas patients with lower levels of TCF3 expression survived longer. Moreover, multivariate analysis suggested that the upregulation of TCF3 was a critical prognostic factor for NPC.

Our observations suggest, for the first time, that TCF3 is significantly associated with the development and progression of NPC, which can be used as an important prognostic marker for patients with NPC and may be an effective target for the treatment of NPC.