The high expression of cancer stem cell transcription factors (Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog) is a valuable prognostic factor, suggesting a higher risk of tumor recurrence and metastasis.
The relationships between NANOG and OCT4 expression with tumor recurrence, tumor count, histology stage, lymph node metastasis (LNM) and microvascular invasion (MVI) were explored through the χ<sup>2</sup> test and Cox regression analysis.
We identified a positive correlation of Oct4 expression with tumor recurrence in 122 clinical specimens of superficial high-grade (stages T1-2) bladder transitional cell carcinoma (TCC).
The concurrent expression of OCT4/NANOG/IGFIR was mostly confined to hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC (HBV-HCC) and was significantly correlated with early tumor recurrence.