Correlations of the expressions of c-Jun and Egr-1 proteins with clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

This study intended to explore the correlation of the expressions of c-Jun and Egr-1 proteins with clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). From January 2008 to January 2011, 123 NPC patients and 59 patients with chronic rhinitis were enrolled in this study. Fresh NPC and normal nasopharynx tissue specimens were obtained during surgery. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was adopted to determine the positive expressions of the c-Jun and Egr-1 proteins. A 5-year clinical follow-up was conducted on all NPC patients. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Cox regression model were used for survival analysis. Compared with normal nasopharynx tissues, c-Jun expression was up-regulated but Egr-1 expression was down-regulated in NPC tissues. NPC patients with stage T3-T4 or stage III-IV had higher positive rates of c-Jun expression than those with stage T1-T2 or stage I-II. However, the positive rates of Egr-1 expression was higher in patients with stage T1-T2 or stage III-IV than those with stage T3-T4 or stage I-II. The survival rate of NPC patients with high c-Jun expression was lower than those with low/negative c-Jun expression, while the survival rate of NPC patients with high Egr-1 expression was higher than those with low/negative Egr-1 expression. The Cox regression analysis revealed that stage T3-T4, high c-Jun expression, and low Egr-1 expression were risk factors for poor prognosis of NPC patients. In conclusion, our study suggests that the c-Jun and Egr-1 proteins can serve as novel potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis and prognosis prediction of NPC.