The clinicopathological and prognostic significances of EZH2 expression in urological cancers: A meta‑analysis and bioinformatics analysis

Bai,Yang-Kai; Sun,Jing; Wang,Ye-Song; Zheng,Nan; Xu,Qing-Le; Wang,Yang

doi:10.3892/ol.2023.13902

The clinicopathological and prognostic significances of EZH2 expression in urological cancers: A meta‑analysis and bioinformatics analysis

Authors:
- Yang-Kai Bai
- Jing Sun
- Ye-Song Wang
- Nan Zheng
- Qing-Le Xu
- Yang Wang
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Affiliations: Department of Urology, Hanzhong Central Hospital, Hanzhong, Shaanxi 723000, P.R. China, Department of Medical Oncology, Affiliated 3201 Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Hanzhong, Shaanxi 723000, P.R. China, Department of Urology, Hebei Provincial People's Hospital, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050000, P.R. China
Published online on: June 6, 2023 https://doi.org/10.3892/ol.2023.13902
Article Number: 315
Copyright: © Bai et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

The Drosophila zeste enhancer homolog 2 gene (enhancer of zeste homolog 2; EZH2) is an important member of the polycomb group (PcG) gene family, which maintains the homologous gene via chromosome modification during embryonic development. EZH2 is overexpressed in various tumors, is closely related to tumor formation and growth, and has a malignant phenotype that promotes tumor cell proliferation, proliferation and metastasis. In the present study, a meta‑ and bioinformatic analysis was performed using data from multiple online databases until August 30, 2022. EZH2 upregulation was found in kidney, bladder and prostate cancers. EZH2 expression was negatively related to TNM staging and pathological grade in kidney and prostate cancers (P<0.05), as well as invasion depth and pathological grade in bladder cancer. According to the KM‑plotter database, EZH2 expression was inversely associated with poor overall survival in patients with kidney clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and papillary RCC and with favorable survival in bladder cancer. EZH2 expression was negatively related to relapse‑free survival in kidney papillary RCC and bladder cancer but positively associated with kidney clear cell RCC. According to GEPIA and UALCAN databases, EZH2 expression was higher in tumor tissue than normal tissue. The TIMER database showed that EZH2 was closely associated with the proportion of seven immune cell infiltrates in kidney, bladder, and prostate cancers. High EZH2 expression may be a potential marker of tumorigenesis and metastasis in patients with urological cancers.

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