BACKGROUND: SOX7 exerts a repressing effect against tumors and imposes vital influences on malignancies. Our research discussed the importance of SOX7 in breast cancer prognoses.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: SOX7 mRNA expression in breast cancer tissues samples and matched adjacent normal controls of breast cancer patients was measured by quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). The relationship of SOX7 with clinicopathological characteristics were analyzed via chi-square test. The association of SOX7 levels with clinical outcomes was evaluated adopting the Kaplan-Meier method and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression model.

RESULTS: SOX7 mRNA degree of expression exhibited a declining tendency in breast cancer tissue compared to paired bordering normal tissue specimens (P<0.001). In addition, the reduced SOX7 degree of expression had a strong correlation to larger cancer mass dimension (P=0.006) and lymph node metastasis (P=0.001). Survival analysis revealed that the overall survival (OS) time was much shorter among cases harboring low SOX7 degree of expression compared to high degree of expression (P=0.005). Moreover, SOX7 expression alone could predict OS among breast cancer patients (hazard ratio=3.956, 95% confidence interval=1.330–11.772, P=0.013).

CONCLUSIONS: SOX7 expression was downregulated in breast cancer tissues, and it could function as a useful prognostic marker in breast cancer.

Keywords: Biomarkers, Pharmacological, BRCA1 Protein, SOXF Transcription Factors, Biomarkers, Tumor, Breast Neoplasms, Down-Regulation, Gene Expression Profiling, Proportional Hazards Models, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction