Highlights
- •In multiple cancer types, high FOXC2 gene expression in primary tumor biopsies is a poor prognostic factor for patient survival.
- •FOXC2 gene expression levels in primary tumors predict cancer patient response to various widely used chemotherapeutic agents.
- •For particular cancer types, the magnitude of FOXC2 gene expression in primary tumors has the potential to serve as an RNA-level biomarker that may improve patient stratification along appropriate treatment regimens.
Abstract
The FOXC2 transcription factor is a key regulator of tumor progression in many cancer
types. Known to exhibit an array of oncogenic functions when dysregulated, FOXC2 has
emerged as a useful biomarker for predicting disease aggression and patient outcome.
In this regard, increased expression and nuclear localization of FOXC2 protein in
tumor tissue have become well-established as poor prognostic factors for many cancer
types. However, whether FOXC2 gene expression can serve as a similarly useful RNA-level biomarker has remained
largely unexplored. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of TCGA RNA-seq
data to evaluate whether FOXC2 gene expression levels in primary tumor biopsies correlate with patient outcome.
We report herein that increased expression of FOXC2 RNA in tumor tissue is a poor prognostic factor for patient survival in many cancer
types. Moreover, we also found that FOXC2 gene expression predicts cancer patient response to several commonly prescribed chemotherapeutics.
Together, these data highlight FOXC2 RNA expression in tumor tissue as an important biomarker with prognostic significance
for solid tumors of diverse origin.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 12, 2021
Accepted:
February 8,
2021
Received in revised form:
February 3,
2021
Received:
October 6,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
