Roles of OCT4 in tumorigenesis, cancer therapy resistance and prognosis

OCT4 (POU5F1) is a major regulator of cell pluripotency and plays an important role not only during embryogenesis but also in tumorigenesis. It has been studied in various types of cancers, since stemness is an important factor for cancer growth and therapy. Here we present basic information about the OCT4 gene, its isoforms and pseudogenes besides discussing the current literature in which OCT4 is linked to cancer, emphasizing its roles in tumorigenesis and therapy. The majority of studies indicated a negative correlation between the expression of OCT4 and prognosis, and only in testicular germ cell tumor this correlation was positive. Using The Cancer Genome Atlas database we showed that OCT4 expression correlated negatively with patient survival in pancreatic cancer. All those different impacts of OCT4 on cancer indicate the biological complexity of this transcription factor in biology and, therefore, also in cancer.