Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the expression of telomere repeat binding factor 1 (TRF1) and TRF2 in prostate cancer and their relationships with clinicopathological features.
Methods: In total 50 prostate cancer tissues and paired benign prostate hyperplasia tissues were analyzed. The telomere-binding proteins TRF1 and TRF2 were measured using immunohistochemical method. Correlation analyses were used to evaluate the association between immunohistochemical score and clinical parameters.
Results: The expression of TRF1 was significantly higher in prostate cancer tissue than in benign prostate hyperplasia tissue (χ2 = 62.69, P < 0.01). Elevated levels of TRF2 were observed in both prostate cancer and benign prostate hyperplasia tissue (χ2 = 1.13, P = 0.76). TRF1 expression was significantly positively correlated with surgical capsular invasion (Spearman's r = 0.43, P = 0.002), seminal vesicle invasion (Spearman's r = 0.35, P = 0.01), lymph nodes metastases (Spearman's r = 0.41, P = 0.003), total prostate specific antigen (r = 0.61, P < 0.05), and Gleason score (r = 0.47, P = 0.01). However, there were no significant statistical differences between prostate volume (r = 0.06, P = 0.75) and age (r = 0.14, P = 0.09).
Conclusion: Both TRF1 and TRF2 were overexpressed in prostate cancer. There was no specificity of TRF2 in prostate cancer, while TRF1 may be associated with prostate cancer progression.