# Prostate Tumor Overexpressed 1 (PTOV1) Is a Novel Prognostic Marker for Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Progression and Poor Survival Outcomes

## TL;DR

This study shows that high levels of the PTOV1 protein in nasopharyngeal cancer are linked to worse survival and could help predict cancer progression.

## Contribution

The study identifies PTOV1 as a novel independent prognostic marker for nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

## Key findings

- PTOV1 is overexpressed in 55.3% of nasopharyngeal carcinoma specimens.
- High PTOV1 expression correlates with advanced clinical stage and lymph node classification.
- PTOV1 overexpression is an independent predictor of poor survival in NPC patients.

## Abstract

Prostate tumor overexpressed 1 (PTOV1) has been reported to contribute to increased cancer proliferation. However, the clinical significance of PTOV1 in the development and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is unclear. Our study aimed to investigate the expression pattern of PTOV1 in NPC and its correlation with clinicopathological features of patients.

Western blotting and real-time PCR were conducted to examine PTOV1 expression levels in NPC cell lines and biopsy tissues compared with normal controls. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed to analyze PTOV1 protein expression in paraffin-embedded tissues from 123 patients. Statistical analyses were applied to evaluate the clinical significance of PTOV1 expression.

PTOV1 mRNA and protein levels were upregulated in NPC cell lines and clinical samples. IHC analyses showed that PTOV1 was highly expressed in 68 (55.3%) of 123 NPC specimens. Statistical analysis revealed that PTOV1 expression was significantly correlated with clinical stage (P < 0.001), T classification (P = 0.042) and N classification (P = 0.001). Patients with a higher PTOV1 expression had shorter overall survival compared with those with a lower PTOV1 expression level, especially in lower N stage patients. Multivariate analyses suggested that PTOV1 expression was an independent prognostic marker for survival in NPC patients.

Our data demonstrated that PTOV1 overexpression is associated with poor survival outcomes of NPC patients, especially in N0-1 patients. Hence, PTOV1 may help to detect early lymph node metastasis of NPC patients and serve as an independent prognostic biomarker for human NPC.