We recently investigated the contribution of the iPS-related genes SOX2, OCT4, and Nanog to de-differentiation by assaying for their mRNA levels. Given that mRNA expression does not always correlate with the protein levels, the aim of this study was to retrospectively determine the expression of these four iPS-related factors in human OSCC specimens by immunohistochemistry and examine their association with patient prognosis.

iPS cell-related gene expression in 89 OSCC patients by tissue microarray, and its correlation with clinicopathological factors, differentiation, metastasis, and poor prognoses were investigated.

No evidence of statistically significant relationships was found between the expression of iPS cell-related genes and clinicopathological parameters. However, our data indicated that KLF4 expression was associated with survival, and poor tumor differentiation. In addition, high expression of KLF4 was an independent poor prognostic factor (p=0.004) for OSCC patients.

In preoperative biopsies, higher KLF4 and poor differentiation may be clinically effective predictors for the prognosis of oral cancer.