In patients with high-risk prostate cancer (HRPC) after radical prostatectomy (RP), biochemical recurrence (BCR) increases the risk of distant metastasis. Accordingly, additional prognostic biomarkers are required to identify the subpopulation of patients with HRPC who develop clinical recurrence (CR) after BCR. The objective of this study was to identify biomarkers in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) RP samples that are prognostic for CR in patients with HRPC who experience BCR after RP (post-RP BCR). First, we performed a preliminary RNA sequencing analysis to comprehensively profile RNA expression in FFPE RP samples obtained from patients with HRPC who developed CR after post-RP BCR and found that many snRNAs were very abundant in preserved FFPE samples. Subsequently, we used quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to compare the expression levels of highly abundant snRNAs in FFPE RP samples from patients with HRPC with and without CR after post-RP BCR (21 CR patients and 46 non-CR patients who had more than 5 years of follow-up after BCR). The qPCR analysis revealed that the expression levels of snRNA RNU1-1/1-2 andRNU4-1were significantly higher in patients with CR than in patients without CR. These snRNAs were significantly correlated with clinical recurrence-free survival (RFS) in patients with HRPC who experienced post-RP BCR. Furthermore, snRNA RNU1-1/1-2 could serve as an independent prognostic factor for clinical RFS in post-RP BCR of HRPC cases where known prognostic factors (e.g., Gleason score) cannot distinguish between CR and non-CR patients. Our findings provide new insights into the involvement of snRNAs in prostate cancer progression.
在高危前列腺癌（HRPC）患者接受根治性前列腺切除术（RP）后，生化复发（BCR）会增加远处转移的风险。因此，需要额外的预后生物标志物来识别HRPC患者中在BCR后出现临床复发（CR）的亚群。本研究旨在从福尔马林固定石蜡包埋（FFPE）的RP样本中，识别出对HRPC患者在RP后经历BCR（RP后BCR）并发生CR具有预后价值的生物标志物。首先，我们进行了初步的RNA测序分析，全面描绘了从RP后BCR并发生CR的HRPC患者获取的FFPE RP样本中的RNA表达谱，发现许多小核RNA（snRNA）在保存的FFPE样本中含量非常丰富。随后，我们采用定量聚合酶链反应（qPCR）比较了在RP后BCR后发生CR与未发生CR的HRPC患者（21例CR患者和46例在BCR后随访超过5年的非CR患者）FFPE RP样本中高丰度snRNA的表达水平。qPCR分析显示，snRNA RNU1-1/1-2和RNU4-1的表达水平在CR患者中显著高于非CR患者。这些snRNA与经历RP后BCR的HRPC患者的临床无复发生存期（RFS）显著相关。此外，在已知预后因素（如格里森评分）无法区分CR与非CR患者的HRPC病例中，snRNA RNU1-1/1-2可作为RP后BCR患者临床RFS的独立预后因素。我们的研究结果为snRNA在前列腺癌进展中的作用提供了新的见解。
肿瘤(癌症)患者之家