Expression of SOX7, SOX9 in prostate cancer and its clinical value in diagnosis and prognosis prediction

Objective To explore the expression of SOX7, SOX9 in prostate cancer and its clinical value in diagnosis and prognosis prediction. Methods The expression of SOX7, SOX9 was detected by immunohistochemistry assay in 68 prostate cancer tissues and 60 hyperplasia prostate tissues, and the relationship between SOX7, SOX9 and clinical data about patients with prostate cancer was analyzed. The diagnostic value of SOX7, SOX9 for prostate cancer was calculated by receiver operating curve, and the correlation between expression of SOX7, SOX9 and over-all survival in prostate cancer was analyzed by Kaplan Meier. Results The overexpression rate of SOX7 was significantly lower in prostate cancer than in hyperplasia prostate (37.2% vs 78.3%, χ²=23.213, P< 0.001). While, the positive-expression rate of SOX9 was significantly higher in prostate cancer than in hyperplasia prostate (73.1% vs 45.0%, χ²=11.224, P < 0.001). The positive-expression rates of SOX7 and SOX9 in Gleason< 7 group were significantly higher than in Gleason ≥ 7 group, and they were significantly higher in Ⅰ-Ⅱ phase group than in Ⅲ-Ⅳ phase group, and also significantly higher in non-lymph node metastasis group than in lymph node metastasis group with statistically significant differences(all P< 0.05). When the critical threshold of SOX9 was 2.87, the AUC value of SOX9 was higher than SOX7. However, when the critical threshold of SOX7 was 4.12, the AUC value of SOX7 was higher than SOX9. The over-all survival in the SOX7 negativeexpression group was remarkably higher than SOX7 positive-expression group (45% vs 20%, χ²=4.438, P=0.035). The overall survival in the SOX9 negative-expression group was significantly lower than SOX9 positive-expression group (24% vs 62%, χ²=4.059, P=0.041). Conclusion SOX7 and SOX9 can be used as indexes for hierarchical diagnosis and prognosis of prostate cancer due to their negative-expression and positive-expression, respectively.