Prognostic significance of Oct4 and Sox2 expression in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Oct4 and Sox2 are two major transcription factors related to the stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. The aim of this study was to examine the association between Oct4 and Sox2 expression levels with both the clinicopathological characteristics and prognoses of patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. METHOD: Tumor tissue samples from 85 patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma were collected, and the clinical follow-up data of these patients were recorded, and expression status of Oct4 and Sox2 were examined in these tissue samples by immunohistochemistry (IHC). RESULTS: Oct4 expression was found to be an independent predictive factor for overall survival (p = 0.004) in patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma and was independently related to loco-regional control (p = 0.001). Although Sox2 expression status showed no significant association with overall survival (p = 0.166), disease-free survival (p = 0.680) or loco-regional control (p = 0.383), when using a subgroup analysis, the subgroup with both high Oct4 and Sox2 expression had the best prognosis (p = 0.000). Sox2 expression could be a potential prognostic predictor for patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Simultaneous analyses of Oct4 and Sox2 expression could be more effective in evaluating the prognoses of patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. CONCLUSION: Oct4 expression is an independent predictive factor for patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, suggesting that Oct4 expression may be a useful indicator for predicting the prognosis of hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.