Elevated NDC80 expression is associated with poor prognosis in osteosarcoma patients

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a commonly diagnosed bone malignancy in children and adolescents. Nuclear division cycle 80 (NDC80) is a crucial regulator of the cell division cycle that has recently been identified as a novel oncoprotein in various solid tumors; however, its role in OS remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate correlations between NDC80 expression in OS patients and clinicopathological features and prognosis.

We began this study by determining NDC80 expression in sarcoma patients using the Oncomine Platform. Then, we measured NDC80 mRNA expression by RT-PCR in 26-paired fresh OS and adjacent normal samples. Finally, we analyzed NDC80 expression by immunohistochemistry in a retrospective cohort of 154 OS patients.

NDC80 mRNA was abnormally overexpressed not only in OS, but also in other sarcomas including liposarcoma, myxofibrosarcoma, and leiomyosarcoma. In the retrospective analysis, NDC80 expression was significantly correlated with TNM stage (p=0.023) and distant metastasis (p=0.008). OS patients with high NDC80 expression had a significantly worse OS-specific (p=0.002) and disease-free survival (p=0.001) compared with those with low NDC80 expression. Furthermore, univariate and multivariate analyses suggested that NDC80 expression together with TNM stage, distant metastasis and preoperative chemotherapy response are significant independent prognostic factors affecting OS-specific and disease-free survival (p<0.05).

Our study highlighted a novel insight into the clinical significance of NDC80 expression in OS patients and suggested its potential as a clinically actionable biomarker for prognostic prediction and therapy decisions.