The expression of cytoglobin as a prognostic factor in gliomas: a retrospective analysis of 88 patients

• Published in: BMC cancer Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 247
• Main Authors: Xu, Hong-Wu, Huang, Yue-Jun, Xie, Ze-Yu, Lin, Lan, Guo, Yan-Chun, Zhuang, Ze-Rui, Lin, Xin-Peng, Zhou, Wen, Li, Mu, Huang, Hai-Hua, Wei, Xiao-Long, Man, Kwan, Zhang, Guo-Jun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 20.05.2013; BioMed Central
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Analysis; Analysis of Variance; Brain cancer; Brain Neoplasms - metabolism; Brain Neoplasms - pathology; Cell growth; Colleges & universities; Female; Glioma - metabolism; Glioma - pathology; Gliomas; Globin genes; Globins - metabolism; Humans; Interleukin-1 - metabolism; Interleukins; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; Medical research; Microvessels - pathology; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; Neoplasm Grading; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - metabolism; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases - metabolism; Phosphorylation; Proportional Hazards Models; Proteins; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt - metabolism; Retrospective Studies; Signal Transduction; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - metabolism; Tumors; Vascular endothelial growth factor; Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A - metabolism; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1471-2407; 1471-2407
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-13-247

Evidence suggests that cytoglobin (Cygb) may function as a tumor suppressor gene. We immunohistochemically evaluated the expression of Cygb, phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI-3K), phosphorylated (p)-Akt, Interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in 88 patients with 41 high-grade gliomas and 47 low-grade gliomas. Intratumoral microvessel density (IMD) was also determined and associated with clinicopathological factors. Low expression of Cygb was significantly associated with the higher histological grading and tumor recurrence. A significant negative correlation emerged between Cygb expression and PI3K, p-Akt, IL-6, TNFα or VEGF expression. Cygb expression was negatively correlated with IMD. There was a positive correlation between PI3K, p-Akt, IL-6, TNFα and VEGF expression with IMD.High histologic grade, tumor recurrence, decreased Cygb expression, increased PI3K expression, increased p-Akt expression and increased VEGF expression correlated with patients' overall survival in univariate analysis. However, only histological grading and Cygb expression exhibited a relationship with survival of patients as independent prognostic factors of glioma by multivariate analysis. Cygb loss may contribute to tumor recurrence and a worse prognosis in gliomas. Cygb may serve as an independent predictive factor for prognosis of glioma patients.