The correlation of OCT4, but not CD133, with the invasiveness of bladder cancer revealed that OCT4 can be considered as a key regulator of tumor progression, aggressive behavior, and metastasis; therefore, OCT4 can be a potential marker for targeted therapy of bladder cancer.
Controversy exists concerning Oct4 expression in somatic tissues, with reports that Oct4 is expressed in normal and in neoplastic urothelium carrying implications for a bladder cancer stem cell phenotype.
Oct-4 as a stem cell marker is expressed in carcinoma cells and in stromal cells of bladder carcinoma, where they may cooperate in the progression of bladder carcinoma by acquiring aggressive features, such as a liability for recurrence and dissemination.
Oct3/4 expression was significantly increased in cells from S. haematobium-associated bladder cancer tissues in comparison to normal bladder and cancer tissues without infection.
Therefore, our results implicate that Oct-3/4 may be useful as a novel tumor biological and prognostic marker and probably as a potential therapeutic target for bladder cancer.