OCT-1 overexpression is associated with poor prognosis in patients with well-differentiated gastric cancer

Octamer transcription factor-1 (OCT-1) is a well-known transcription factor that is reportedly overexpressed in intestinal metaplasia and gastric carcinoma in the intestine. In this study, we investigated OCT-1 overexpression as a prognostic factor for gastric cancer. The association between OCT-1 overexpression (detected using immunohistochemistry) and clinicopathological features including survival was evaluated. In vitro gain-of-function approaches were utilized to assess the function of OCT-1 in malignancy. Analysis of OCT-1 expression in patients with gastric cancer with well-differentiated carcinoma as per the World Health Organization classification showed that OCT-1 overexpression was correlated with advanced tumor invasion (58.8 % of patients with advanced tumor invasion vs. 21.2 % of patients with early tumor invasion; p < 0.01), lymph node metastasis (63.9 % of patients with metastasis vs. 24.1 % of those without; p = 0.015), and cancer recurrence (83.3 % of patients with recurrence vs. 25.4 % of those without; p < 0.01), as well as a lower survival rate (62.8 vs. 87.9 Mo; p < 0.01). However, there were no significant differences in the levels of OCT-1 expression in gastric cancer patients with other carcinoma types (p > 0.05). Furthermore, we found that the proliferation rate of OCT-1-overexpressing MKN-45 cells was higher than that of the control cells. OCT-1 overexpression may be a marker for poor prognosis in patients with well-differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma.