Increased expression of tumor protein D54 is associated with clinical progression and poor prognosis in patients with prostate cancer

Tumor protein D54 (TPD54) has been reported to be involved in the prognosis of several cancers. However, the involvement of TPD54 in prostate cancer (PCa) is yet to be elucidated. In the present study, 117 patients with PCa were enrolled. The mRNA and protein levels of TPD54 in PCa tissues and adjacent normal prostate tissues were analyzed by quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting. TPD54 expression was also determined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in paraffin-embedded PCa tissues. The association between TPD54 expression and clinicopathological features and prognosis was evaluated. The results revealed that the expression levels of TPD54 mRNA and protein were upregulated in PCa tissues compared with adjacent normal prostate tissues. In addition, moderate/strong staining of TPD54 was observed in 91.4% (107/117) of PCa tissues, but only in 32.5% (38/117) of adjacent normal prostate tissues, as assessed by IHC. TPD54 expression was significantly associated with Gleason score (P=0.0001). In addition, patients with PCa with moderate/strong TPD54 expression had shorter biochemical recurrence-free survival times compared with those with negative/weak TPD54 expression (P=0.002). Multivariate analysis indicated that TPD54 overexpression was an independent prognostic factor for patients with PCa (hazard ratio, 2.259; 95% confidence interval, 1.09–4.679; P=0.028). Taken together, these results indicated that TPD54 is a predictor of poor outcome for patients with PCa, and may be a potential prognostic marker for patients with PCa.