EBioMedicine (Nov 2022)

Nucleolin expression has prognostic value in neuroblastoma patients

  • Davide Cangelosi,
  • Chiara Brignole,
  • Veronica Bensa,
  • Roberto Tamma,
  • Fabiana Malaguti,
  • Barbara Carlini,
  • Elena Giusto,
  • Enzo Calarco,
  • Patrizia Perri,
  • Domenico Ribatti,
  • Nuno André Fonseca,
  • Joao Nuno Moreira,
  • Alessandra Eva,
  • Loredana Amoroso,
  • Massimo Conte,
  • Alberto Garaventa,
  • Angela Rita Sementa,
  • Maria Valeria Corrias,
  • Mirco Ponzoni,
  • Fabio Pastorino

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 85
p. 104300

Abstract

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Summary: Background: Neuroblastoma (NB) represents the most frequent form of extra-cranial solid tumour of infants, responsible for 15% of childhood cancer deaths. Nucleolin (NCL) prognostic value in NB was investigated. Methods: NCL protein expression was retrospectively evaluated in tumour samples of NB patients at diagnosis and after chemotherapy. NCL prognostic value at mRNA level was assessed in a cohort of 20 patients with stage 4 NB (qPCR20, n=20, discovery dataset) and in the MultiPlatform786 including 786 patients of all stages (validation dataset). Overall and event-free survival curves were plotted by Kaplan-Meier method and compared by log-rank test. Findings: NCL protein, down-modulated after chemotherapy in association with features of neuroblastic differentiation,resulted statistically significantly overexpressed in NB tumours and higher in stage 4 compared to stage 1,2,3 patients. In the stage 4 patients cohort qPCR20, patients with high NCLmRNA expression revealed a statisticallysignificant lower survival probability than those with low NCL expression (OS: HR 4.1 95%CI 1.2–13.8;p=0.0215[Log-rank test], EFS: HR 4.1 95%CI 1.2–14.0, p=0.0197[Log-rank test]). In the MultiPlatform786 (n=786), multivariate analysis suggested thatNCL expression has a statistically significant prognostic value even in the model adjusted for established prognostic markers. NCL expression significantly stratified also patients with >18 months and stage 4 tumour (OS: HR 1.8 95%CI 1.2–2.7, p=0.0009[Log-rank test]; EFS: HR 1.7 95%CI 1.1–2.5, p=0.002[Log-rank test]), patients with>18 months stage 4 with MYCN non amplified tumour[EFS: HR 2.3 95%CI 1.2–4.7, p=0.01[Log-rank test]), and patients with MYCN non amplified and MYC high [OS: HR 11.9 95%CI 2.3–62.4, p=0.003[Log-rank test]; EFS: HR 7.2 95%CI 1.6–33.4, p=0.01[Log-rank test]). A statistically significant correlation between NCL and MYCN, MYC, and TERT was found in independent datasets (MultiPlatform786 (n=786) and Agilent394 (n=394). Gene set enrichment analysis revealed a statisticallysignificant positive enrichment of MYC target genes and genes involved in telomerase maintenance. Interpretation: NCL is a novel and independent (adjusting for age, INSS stage, and MYCN status) prognostic marker for NB. Funding: IMH-EuroNanoMed II-2015 and AIRC-IG.

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