Expression of chemokine receptor CXCR4 is closely correlated with clinical outcome in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

The CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) has been reported to be involved in the development and progression of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, the role of CXCR4 in clinical outcome and prognosis of NPC patients remains controversial. In the present study, we investigated and reviewed the expression of CXCR4 in NPC tissues and then analyzed the definitive role of CXCR4 in clinical outcome and prognosis. Here, we found that the expression level of CXCR4 was significantly higher in NPC cancer specimens (61/98) than that in paired non-tumor tissues (p < 0.001). Together with our pathological analysis, statistic analysis revealed that CXCR4 expression was indeed closely correlated with UICC stage (p = 0.000), N stage (p = 0.019), and metastasis (p = 0.000). Most importantly, the systematic review combined with our survival and multivariate analysis that revealed high expression of CXCR4 was obviously associated with poor overall survival (OS) (p = 0.000) and progression-free survival (PFS) (p = 0.000) and can act as an independent prognostic factor in NPC patients. In conclusion, this study suggests that CXCR4 is highly activated and expressed in the development of NPC and may be recommended as an indicator in the diagnosis of NPC. Thus, targeting of CXCR4 gene or protein could be used as a potential therapy for NPC.