XPA-210: a new proliferation marker to characterize tumor biology and progression of renal cell carcinoma

Multi-Omics Integration Analysis of TK1 in Glioma: A Potential Biomarker for Predictive, Preventive, and Personalized Medical Approaches

Multi-omics expression datasets obtained from multiple public databases were used to elucidate the biological function of TK1 and its effects on clinical outcomes. The Kaplan-Meier curve, a predictive nomogram mode, and the time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were established to assess the role of TK1 expression in glioma prognosis. TK1 was overexpressed in glioma compared with normal samples, and patients with elevated expression of TK1 had poor overall survival. The ROC curves indicated a high diagnostic value of TK1 expression in patients of glioma; the areas under the ROC curve (AUC) were 0.682, 0.735, and 0.758 for 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years of glioma survival, respectively. For a model based on TK1 expression and other clinical characteristics, the values of AUC were 0.864, 0.896, and 0.898 for 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years, respectively. Additionally, the calibration curve indicated that the predicted and observed areas at 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years of survival were in excellent agreement. Three types of TK1 alterations-missense mutations, splice mutations, and amplifications-were identified in 25 of 2706 glioma samples. The TK1-altered group had better overall survival than the unaltered group. Single-cell function analysis showed that TK1 was positively associated with proliferation, the cell cycle, DNA repair, DNA damage, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition in glioma. Immunoinfiltration analysis indicated that TK1 expression might play different roles in low-grade glioma and glioblastoma multiforme tumor microenvironments, but TK1 expression was positively associated with activated CD4 and Th2, regardless of tumor grade. In summary, our findings identified TK1 as a novel marker for predicting clinical outcomes and a potential target for glioma.

STK1p as a prognostic biomarker for overall survival in non-small-cell lung carcinoma, based on real-world data

Aim:

A prospective investigation of serum thymidine kinase 1 concentration (STK1p) was performed to evaluate its prognostic value in patients with non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLCs).

Patients & methods:

The STK1p values of 127 patients were determined by an enhanced chemiluminescent dot blot assay. The patients were recruited from March 2011 to December 2017.

Results:

Kaplan–Meier plot showed that patients with elevated STK1p values had worse overall survival (OS), especially patients of early/middle stages. Multi-variable COX regression showed that STK1p value and combined treatment surgery + chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors for favorable OS.

Conclusion:

STK1p is helpful in predicting OS of early/middle stages (I–IIIA) NSCLCs patients following a nonrandomized individual adapted treatment, but is may be not recommended in advanced stages (IIIB + IV) of NSCLCs.

Lung cancer is one of the most common types of tumors, with a high mortality rate. We investigate if thymidine kinase 1 in serum (STK1p) is a reliable prognostic marker for survival in non-small-cell lung carcinoma. We recruited 127 patients in this study. STK1p level was determined using a high-sensitive chemiluminescent dot blot assay. Patients with elevated STK1p values had worse overall survival, especially patients in the early/middle cancer stages. Analysis showed that STK1p is an independent prognostic factors for overall survival. We concluded that STK1p is helpful predicting the efficacy of treatment in non-small-cell lung carcinoma for those in the early/middle stages.

Thymidine kinase 1 silencing retards proliferative activity of pancreatic cancer cell via E2F1-TK1-P21 axis

OBJECTIVES

Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is one of the salvage enzymes engaged in the synthesis of DNA. Although a pro-carcinogenetic role of TK1 has been reported in various types of cancers, its role in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is still unknown. The study is aimed to elaborate the function of TK1 in PDAC and the potential mechanisms in the following study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

TK1 expression was analysed by immunohistochemistry, real-time PCR and Western blot, and its relationship with clinicopathological characteristics of PDAC patients was further investigated. To verify the function of TK1 and potential mechanism, TK1 siRNA was used to transfect PDAC cells and performed a series of assays in cell and animal models.

RESULTS

The level of TK1 expression was higher in cancerous tissues compared with matched adjacent tissues. TK1 overexpression was associated with progression of PDAC and poor prognosis. Knockdown of TK1 could suppress cell proliferation via inducing S phase arrest mediated by upregulation of P21. Further mechanism investigation suggested that transcription factor E2F-1 could directly regulate the TK1 and promote tumour proliferation.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggested that TK1 might be involved in the development and progression of PDAC by regulating cell proliferation and show that TK1 may work as a promising therapeutic target in patients with PDAC.

TK1 overexpression is associated with the poor outcomes of lung cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM

The study aimed to unveil the effect of TK1 expression on the clinicopathological significance and prognosis in patients with lung cancer. Results & methodology: Studies for meta-analysis were selected according to a thorough literature search in databases (PubMed, EMBASE and Chinese databases). Ten studies containing 1393 lung cancer patients were investigated in our analysis. The TK1 overexpression was associated with poorer overall survival(OS) in lung cancer patients (hazard ratio = 1.881; 95% CI:1.318-2.684, Z = 3.48; p = 0.001). Furthermore, The TK1 expression is associated with the clinicopathological features of lung cancer patients (tumor type, age, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and tumor, node, metastasis [TNM] stages).  Discussion & conclusion: The TK1 expression might have a supportive implication in assessing biological behavior and prognosis of lung cancer patients.

Muscle-invasive bladder cancer is characterized by overexpression of thymidine kinase 1

OBJECTIVE

Thymidine kinases have an important role in the synthesis of DNA and exhibit high activity in rapidly proliferating cells. Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) activity has been shown to be increased in various cancer types and proposed as a prognostic parameter. Aim of the present study was to investigate TK1 in muscle-invasive urothelial carcinoma (UC).

METHODS

Corresponding UC and benign samples from paraffin embedded tissue of 111 patients treated with cystectomy for invasive UC from 1996 to 2006 were immunohistochemically (IHC) assessed for TK1. IHC expression patterns were evaluated in a semiquantitative fashion by 2 independent reviewers. Localization of staining was categorized into pure nuclear and additional cytoplasmic localization. Uni- and multivariate analyses were performed to assess differential expression in normal and UC tissue and to evaluate the diagnostic and predictive capability of TK1 by correlation to clinical data. To correlate TK1 expression with molecular subtypes of UC, analysis of TK1 RNA expression levels of the Cancer Genome Atlas UC cohort was performed.

RESULTS

TK1 was significantly overexpressed in invasive UC, compared to benign urothelium (P<0.0001), and cytoplasmic expression was more often found in cancer tissue than in benign tissue (P = 0.0001). No correlations of TK1 protein expression patterns to standard histopathological determinants were detected. In univariate analysis, TK1 nuclear and cytoplasmic expression was associated with improved cancer-specific survival (P = 0.0119). However, only metastasis status and histologic grade were identified as independent predictors of cancer-specific survival in multivariate analysis. TK1 expression was merely found in the basal layers of benign urothelium. RNA overexpression of TK1 could be correlated to the biologically more aggressive basal UC subtype.

CONCLUSIONS

TK1 expression is significantly different in invasive UC and benign urothelium, which underlines its potential as a diagnostic marker. Although TK1 is considered to be a marker of proliferation, and TK1 RNA overexpression is associated with an aggressive UC subtype, its capability as a predictive IHC biomarker for invasive UC remains limited.

Nuclear TK1 expression is an independent prognostic factor for survival in pre-malignant and malignant lesions of the cervix

Background

Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) is a proliferation biomarker that has been found useful for prognostication in cancer patients. Here we investigate for the first time the use of TK1 expression as a prognostic factor for patients with premalignant and malignant lesions of the uterine cervix.

Methods

TK1 expression was determined by immunohistochemistry in cervical lesions (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), n = 216; invasive cervical carcinoma, n = 84). TK1 and Ki-67 expressions and pathological/FIGO stages and age were correlated with 5-year survival by Kaplan-Meier, log rank and COX hazard uni- and multivariate analyses.

Results

TK1 labeling index (LI) was significantly correlated with CIN grades and invasive cervical carcinoma stages, while TK1 labeling intensity was only correlated to CIN grades. TK1 LI was significantly higher compared with Ki-67 LI. TK1 LI correlated significantly to 5-year survival in patients with invasive cervical carcinoma, particularly nuclear TK1 LI. In a multivariate analysis, nuclear TK1 expression was independent prognostic factor in patients with in situ/invasive cervical carcinoma or in invasive cervical carcinoma alone. Interestingly, in invasive cervical carcinoma patients with advanced tumors, nuclear TK1 expression could identify patients with significantly better survival rates (80%), while Ki-67 could not.

Conclusions

Nuclear TK1 expression in early grade CIN predicts risk for progression to malignancy. Nuclear TK1 expression is also a prognostic factor for treatment outcome, particularly in patients with advanced cervical carcinomas. Nuclear TK1 expression is more useful than Ki-67 and pathological/FIGO stages.

The proliferation marker thymidine kinase 1 in clinical use

Tumor-related biomarkers are used for the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of treatments and follow-up of cancer patients, although only a few are fully accepted for the detection of invisible/visible tumors in health screening. Thymidine kinase 1 (TK1), a cell cycle-dependent and thus a proliferation-related marker, has been extensively studied during the last decades, using both biochemical and immunological techniques. Therefore, TK1 is an emerging potential proliferating biomarker in oncology that may be used for the prognosis and monitoring of tumor therapy, relapse and survival. In addition, TK1 concentration in serum (STK1p) is a useful biomarker in healthy screening for the detection of potential malignancy development as well as the identification of early-stage tumors, with a few false-positive cases (ROC value, 0.96; tumor proliferation sensitivity, 0.80; specificity, 0.99). In this review, we examine results regarding the expression of STK1p and TK1 in relation to cancer patients and STK1p in health screening published between 2000 and 2012. The use of tumor-related markers recommended by international cancer organizations is also discussed. This review provides valuable information for applications in tumor patients, in health screening and for cancer research.

High thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) expression is a predictor of poor survival in patients with pT1 of lung adenocarcinoma

In this study, we explore the association of thymidine kinase 1 (TK1) expression in tumour tissues with clinical pathological parameters and prognosis in patients with pathological T1 (pT1) lung adenocarcinoma. The expression of TK1 was studied by immunohistochemistry techniques in 80 patients with surgically resected pT1 lung adenocarcinoma, retrospectively and at >10-year follow-up. Compared to patients with low TK1 expression [labelling index (LI) <25.0%], patients with high TK1 expression (LI ≥ 25.0%) showed significantly increased lymphatic/vascular permeation and lymph node involvement and higher stromal invasion grade and pathological stage, and a greater number of patients had a tumour size of 2.1 to 3.0 cm. The 5-year survival and the mortality during follow-up for patients with high TK1 expression were significantly worse than that of patients with low TK1 expression. The prognoses of the cases with grade 0, grade 1 and grade 2 stromal invasions were similar and were better than those of cases with grade 3. In patients with stromal invasion grade 3, the 5-year survival and the mortality during follow-up were significantly worse for patients with high TK1 compared to patients with low TK1 expression. Univariate analyses showed that stromal invasion and TK1 expression were significant prognostic factors, while in the multivariate analysis, TK1 expression and tumour stage were found to be independent prognostic factors, but not stromal invasion. This is the first study showing that TK1 expression in combination with stromal invasion is a more reliable prognostic factor than stromal invasion classification itself in patients with pT1 lung adenocarcinoma. TK1 expression enables a further classification of the patients and opens opportunities for improved treatment outcome.

XPA-210: a new proliferation marker determines locally advanced prostate cancer and is a predictor of biochemical recurrence

PURPOSE

XPA-210 is a proliferation marker derived from Thymidine kinase-1. It is of clinical significance in kidney, breast, and bladder cancer. There are no data available for XPA-210 in prostate cancer (PC). Herein, we aim to determine the clinical usefulness of XPA-210 in PC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In a retrospective study, cancer and benign tissue samples of 103 patients (median age 65 years, median PSA 9.04 ng/ml, median Gleason score 6) who underwent prostatectomy were constructed to a tissue micro array and stained for XPA-210. Semi-quantitative results were correlated with pathological and clinical data by Wilcoxon-Kruskall-Wallis and linear regression analysis. Expression levels in PC were correlated between the time of biochemical recurrence and the time to development of metastasis by the Kaplan-Meier method. Multivariate analysis was done to correlate those with the resection status.

RESULTS

Mean staining score was 0.51-0.14 for tumor and benign tissue (P < 0.0001). Tumor staining score was significantly associated with Gleason score <6/≥6 (P < 0.0001) and T2/T >2 (P = 0.0007). When dividing the tumor score by the mean value, higher expression of XPA-210 was associated with a shorter time to biochemical recurrence (P = 0.003) and time to development of metastasis (P = 0.0061). Tumor staining (P = 0.0371) was an independent prognostic factor for biochemical relapse regardless of resection status.

CONCLUSIONS

XPA-210 is a new tissue-based prognostic marker for prostate cancer histopathology. It reliably differentiates tumor and normal prostatic tissue predicting biochemical relapse and onset of metastatic disease. XPA-210 might be clinically useful for individual decision-making in PC-treatment.