High TRIAP1 expression in penile carcinoma is associated with high risk of recurrence and poor survival

TP53-regulated inhibitor of apoptosis 1 (TRIAP1), also known as p53 cell survival factor or p53CSV, is reported to be associated with resistance of apoptosis in different human malignancies, but the potential role of TRIAP1 in penile carcinoma (PeCa) has not been well studied. This study aimed to analyze the association between TRIAP1 expression and clinical outcome in PeCa patients.

Bioinformatics was used to analyze the differential TRIAP1 expression in PeCa compared with normal tissues in Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) Dataset (GSE57955). The expression of TRIAP1 in tumor specimens from 57 patients undergoing radical penile surgery was detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Differential TRIAP1 expression in various human malignancies was also assessed by GEPIA web-tool based on The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Datasets. Subsequently, the relationship between TRIAP1 expression and clinical prognosis of PeCa patients was analyzed.

Both IHC and GEO Dataset (GSE57955) showed that TRIAP1 was significantly overexpressed in PeCa tissues when compared with normal tissues. Based on patient data and IHC on clinical specimens, we found that strong intensity of TRIAP1 expression was significantly related with higher histological grade (P=0.049) and elevated local recurrence rate (P=0.023), suggesting TRIAP1 as a potential predictor in recurrence. Further, high TRIAP1 expression was identified to be a hazardous prognostic factor for local recurrence-free survival (RFS).

High TRIAP1 expression in PeCa is associated with high risk of recurrence and poor survival, suggesting TRIAP1 may become a potential prognostic factor for PeCa.