Snail as a potential marker for predicting the recurrence of prostate cancer in patients at stage T2 after radical prostatectomy

• The snail expression level but not the preoperative PSA value or pathological T stage predicted biochemical recurrence after RP in men with pathological localized prostate cancer (T2 stage).
• According to our results, in patients with pathological localized prostate cancer and a high snail image score in cancer tissues, adjuvant therapy might be suggested to prevent earlier biochemical failure.

BackgroundWe retrospectively investigated the relationship between immunohistochemical staining of radical prostatectomy (RP) specimens for snail and cancer recurrence.MethodsSeventy-six patients with prostate cancer who underwent RP were enrolled, and 53 patients were ultimately collected whose cancer was pathologically defined as T2. We detected the expression of snail using tissue microarrays. The snail image score was determined by the intensity × tumor percentage, and a high score was defined as 8 (1–12 points).ResultsThe snail image scores and Gleason score sums were correlated with recurrence-free survival according to a log–rank test (p < 0.05). In a Cox proportional hazard model, only a high snail image score (≥ 8) (hazard ratio (HR): 3.04, p = 0.036) but not a high Gleason score sum (≥ 7) (HR: 1.33, p = 0.215), and a more-advanced pathological T stage (T2c) (HR: 1.5, p = 0.461) were significantly correlated with worse recurrence-free survival. The snail image score was determined to be an independent factor for predicting prostate cancer recurrence after RP.ConclusionIn patients with pathological localized prostate cancer and a high snail image score in cancer tissue, adjuvant therapy might be suggested to prevent early biochemical failure.