Overexpression of STOML1 is associated with good prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a prevalent head and neck malignancy characterized by high recurrence rate, adversely affecting patient prognosis. The present study aimed to identify key genes and mechanisms affecting NPC prognosis using DNA microarray, bioinformatics analysis and clinical data integration. The gene expression profile of patients with NPC with favorable (n=12) and unfavorable (n=8) prognoses was assessed using cDNA profiling. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to identify key prognostic factors, whilst immunohistochemistry assays were performed to eval‑ uate the association between gene‑protein expression in 107 NPC samples. The prognostic significance was assessed using Cox regression analysis, Kaplan‑Meier curves, log‑rank tests and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses were performed to assess the underlying mechanisms. cDNA profiling identified six genes, including stomatin like 1 (STOML1), as significant prognostic factors. The Kaplan‑Meier Plotter and The Cancer Genome Atlas database indicated that the mRNA expression levels of STOML1 were significantly associated (P<0.05) with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma prognosis. In