Thus, HOXA9 appears closely linked with adenoma growth while impairing migration and metastasis and hence is both a marker and driver of premalignant polyp growth.
Our findings highlight a TWIST1-HOXA9 embryonic prostate developmental program that is reactivated during prostate cancer metastasis and is therapeutically targetable.<i></i>.
Analyses show that the embryonic developmental biomodule containing four homeobox gene family members (Meis1, Meis2, Pbx1, and HoxA9) detects a survival difference in a set of watchful-waiting patients (n = 172, P = 0.05), identify men who are more likely to recur biochemically postprostatectomy (n = 78, P = 0.02), correlate with Gleason score (r = 0.98, P = 0.02), and distinguish between normal prostate, primary tumor, and metastatic disease.
We analyzed normal and neoplastic tissues for the expression of three AbdB-type HOX genes; HOXD10, HOXA9, and HOXC9 to evaluate three hypotheses: (a) that tumors express HOX genes found in their tissue of origin, (b) that metastatic tumors continue to express HOX genes found in the primary tumor, and (c) that the level of HOX expression is related to tumor grade.