HLA-E expression in diffuse glioma: relationship with clinicopathological features and patient survival

• Published in: BMC neurology Vol. 20; no. 1; p. 59
• Main Authors: Wu, Zhifeng, Liang, Jingshan, Wang, Zheng, Li, Aimin, Fan, Xing, Jiang, Tao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 17.02.2020; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Antigens; Astrocytoma; Astrocytoma - pathology; Astrocytomas; Biomarkers; Brain cancer; Brain Neoplasms - pathology; Cancer; Clinical outcome; Clinical outcomes; Development and progression; Diffuse glioma; DNA microarrays; Female; Gene expression; Genomes; Glioma; Glioma - pathology; Gliomas; Health aspects; Histocompatibility antigen HLA; Histocompatibility Antigens Class I - genetics; HLA antigens; HLA-E; HLA-E Antigens; Humans; Immunotherapy; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Male; Medical prognosis; Messenger RNA; Microarray Analysis; Middle Aged; mRNA; Mutation; Neoplasm Grading; Patients; Prognosis; Prognostic biomarker; RNA; Software; Survival analysis; Tumor markers; Tumors; Young Adult; China; Beijing China; California; United States > US; Clinical outcome; Diffuse glioma; HLA-E; Prognostic biomarker
• ISSN: 1471-2377; 1471-2377
• DOI: 10.1186/s12883-020-01640-4

Human leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E) has been extensively investigated in various human cancers including glioma. However, the clinical significance of HLA-E expression in glioma patients has not been elucidated. The current study aimed to investigate the association of HLA-E expression with clinicopathological features and survival in patients with diffuse glioma. A total of 261 glioma patients were enrolled, subsequently, mRNA microarray analysis was conducted to identify the relationship of HLA-E with clinicopathological features and patient survival. HLA-E was significantly overexpressed in high-grade gliomas compared to low-grade gliomas (LGGs). Moreover, HLA-E expression was significantly higher in diffuse astrocytomas than oligodendrogliomas (p = 0.032, t-test). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were significantly better in LGG patients with low HLA-E expression (p = 0.018 for PFS and p = 0.020 for OS, Log-rank test). Furthermore, HLA-E expression was identified to be an independent prognostic factor by Cox analysis (p = 0.020 for PFS and p = 0.024 for OS). This is the first study which identified the clinical significance of HLA-E in diffuse glioma. HLA-E expression was correlated with more aggressive tumor grade and histological type and was identified as an independent prognostic biomarker in LGG patients.