BASP1 is up-regulated in tongue squamous cell carcinoma and associated with a poor prognosis

Objective: To study the relationship between expression of brain acid soluble protein 1 (BASP1) in tongue squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) tissue and the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients with TSCC.

Methods: Western blotting was performed to detect BASP1 expression in fresh-frozen specimens of tumor tissue and adjacent normal tissue obtained from 6 patients with TSCC. Immunohistochemical methods were used to detect BASP1 expression in 100 paraffin-embedded specimens of TSCC tissue. The chi-square test was used to analyze the association between BASP1 expression and a variety of clinicopathological parameters. A Kaplan-Meier analysis and the Cox proportional hazard model were used to further evaluate the impact of BASP1 on patient survival.

Results: The Oncomine database showed that BASP1 expression was increased in TSCC tissues. The PrognoScan and GEPIA databases suggested that a high level of BASP1 expression is related to a poor prognosis for patients with head and neck cancer. Experimental results showed that when compared to normal tissues adjacent to a cancer, BASP1 was more highly expressed in the TSCC tissues. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that BASP1 expression and the tumor's stage may be independent risk factors that affect the growth and prognosis of TSCC. A survival analysis showed that patients with a low level of BASP1 expression had a higher survival rate.

Conclusion: Overexpression of BASP1 was found to be associated with distant node metastasis and a poor prognosis among patents with TSCC. BASP1 could possibly serve as a molecular marker for diagnosing and treating the disease.