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  • Oncogenomics
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Expression of the stem cell self-renewal gene Hiwi and risk of tumour-related death in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma

Oncogene volume 26, pages 1098–1100 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Self-renewal is considered as a common property of stem cells. Dysregulation of stem cell self-renewal is likely a requirement for the development of cancer. Hiwi, the human Piwi gene, encodes a protein responsible for stem cell self-renewal. In this study, we investigated the expression of Hiwi at the RNA level by real-time quantitative PCR in 65 primary soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) and ascertained its impact on prognosis for STS patients. In a multivariate Cox's proportional hazards regression model, we found that an increased expression of Hiwi mRNA is a significant negative prognostic factor for patients with STS (P=0.017; relative risk 4.6, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.3–16.1) compared to medium expression of Hiwi transcript. However, a low expression of Hiwi transcript is correlated with a 2.4-fold (CI 0.7–8.0) increased risk, but this effect was not significant (P=0.17). Altogether, high-level expression of Hiwi mRNA identifies STS patients at high risk of tumour-related death. This is the first report showing a correlation between expression of a gene involved in stem cell self-renewal and prognosis of cancer patients.

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Abbreviations

ag:

attogram

CI:

confidence interval

RR:

relative risk

STS:

soft-tissue sarcoma(s)

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Project No. TA 145/8-19 and a grant from the Deutsche Krebshilfe Project No.10-2130-Ta2. We thank Deanna Naeve and Dr Clayton Naeve from St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA for continuous support and helpful discussions. The funding source had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the report.

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Author notes

  1. H Taubert and T Greither: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Pathology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

    H Taubert, T Greither, F Bartel, H Schmidt, H-J Holzhausen & S Hauptmann

  2. Hartwell Center for Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA

    D Kaushal

  3. Clinic of General and Transplantation Surgery, University Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    P Würl

  4. Department of Radiotherapy, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

    M Bache & M Kappler

  5. Probiodrug AG, Halle, Germany

    A Kehlen

  6. Institute of Medical Biometry and Informatics, University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

    C Lautenschläger

  7. Molecular Pharmacology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA

    L Harris

  8. Department of Urology, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany

    K Kraemer & A Meye

  9. Junior Research Group, Institute of Pathology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany

    F Bartel

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  1. H Taubert
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  5. M Bache
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  7. A Kehlen
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  8. C Lautenschläger
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  10. K Kraemer
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  11. A Meye
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  12. M Kappler
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  13. H Schmidt
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Correspondence to H Taubert.

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Taubert, H., Greither, T., Kaushal, D. et al. Expression of the stem cell self-renewal gene Hiwi and risk of tumour-related death in patients with soft-tissue sarcoma. Oncogene 26, 1098–1100 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1209880

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1209880

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