Hepsin could play an important role in the pathogenesis and the early carcinogenesis of endometrial carcinoma and could serve as a prognostic biomarker in this tumor.
We evaluated the association of 17 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the HPN gene with prostate cancer risk and clinical characteristics (Gleason score and tumor stage) in Korean men (240 case subjects and 223 control subjects) using unconditional logistic regression.
In the chorioallantoic membrane xenograft model, hepsin overexpression in PC3 cells reduced the viability of tumors but did not suppress invasive growth.
Microarray analysis was performed using an expanded sequence verified set of 40,000 human cDNA clones, revealing several genes with significant differences between malignant and benign tissue, including recently reported genes like alpha-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) and hepsin, as well as genes relevant for tumour development and progression.
The ratio of cancerous-to-noncancerous hepsin expression was significantly higher in the 39 patients with grade 3 tumors compared with the 51 with grade 2 tumors (median 15.5 vs 9.6, p = 0.031).