Prognostic value of osteopontin for different types of cancer

Rahil Ghanbarnasab behbahani,1,* Amir danyaei,2

1. Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences
2. Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Introduction

Cancer is a complex pathologic disorder caused by genetic or non-genetic changes. cancer progression depends on an increase of metastasis promoting cell signaling molecules that target signal transduction pathways via their gene overexpression. osteopontin (opn) is a phosphoglycoprotein produced by a variety of tissues including osteocytes, osteoblasts, fibroblasts, bone marrow cells, dendritic cells, macrophages, smooth muscle, skeletal muscle myoblasts, endothelial cells, and placenta. furthermore, opn is overexpressed in a set of cancers, such as breast cancer, colorectal cancer, stomach cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer. recent studies, have shown that the overexpression of opn may be associated with invasive attitudes of tumor, mainly metastasis, migration, angiogenesis, and poor prognosis.

Methods

Using the relevant keywords (osteopontin, opn, spp-1, cancer, overall survival (os), prognostic value and prognosis) the relation of opn and the prognosis of different types of cancer, was retrieved by searching pubmed, scopus, and science direct data bases and google scholar search engine, as well. in this review, all related english articles published during the last five years were evaluated. the inclusion criteria for published studies were as follow: a) all human cancers were evaluated; b) the study was focused on the association between opn expression and prognosis and only original articles were assessed; and c) at last, the protein expression pattern in tumor tissues was evaluated. a total of 212 studies in the last five years which met the inclusion criteria were entered in the review. in vivo studies on animals, and in vitro studies were excluded.

Results

Among 70 relevant studies 65 studies demonstrated an inverse correlation with prognosis, four studies showed no association, and only one study indicated a direct relation between opn expression level and prognosis. we also found that opn expression was inversely correlated with either os or disease free survival (dfs).

Conclusion

Based on the results of this study opn may be considered as a valuable biomarker in prognosis of some important cancers. therefore, it may be suggested to add up the measurement of opn expression level (mrna and/or protein) as a new diagnostic test. however, the most studies until now are concentrated on lung adenocarcinoma and breast cancer, further investigations should be carried out to elucidate the prognostic value of opn expression in other common cancers.

Keywords

Osteopontin, cancer, prognosis, overall survival