SOX2 and cancer: current research and its implications in the clinic

Weina, Kasia; Utikal, Jochen

doi:10.1186/2001-1326-3-19

Clinical and Translational Medicine

Table 2 Clinical relevance of SOX2

From: SOX2 and cancer: current research and its implications in the clinic

Cancer type	Function in the clinic	References
Breast	Promotes Tamoxifen resistance via WNT signaling activation in CSCs	[21, 27, 89]
	ZF-based ATF therapy effective for downregulation of SOX2
	Expression correlates with TNM stage and histological grade
Colorectal	Prognostic marker for metastasis	[29, 32]
	Associated with poor patient prognosis
	Associated with distant metastasis and lymph-node metastasis
Esophageal	Co-expression with OCT3/4 significantly associated with higher histological stage	[84, 85, 90]
	Co-expression with OCT3/4 correlated to poorer survival
	Co-expression with SALL4 correlates to depth of tumor invasion and metastasis
	CD44 and SOX2 is correlated to poor survival
Gastric	Associated with poor prognosis	[38, 41]
	SOX2 methylation correlates to significantly shorter survival time
	Predicts immunotherapy response
Hepatocellular carcinoma	Expression correlates with metastasis	[47]
Hepatocellular carcinoma	Expression correlates with low survival rate	[47]
Lung, NSCLC, Squamous cell lung cancer	Associated with better survival independent of histological subtype	[62, 67, 68, 86–88]
	Expression is a positive prognostic marker
	SOX2 amplification and upregulation are frequent events linked to favorable prognosis
	Important tumor-associated antigen
	Associates SOX2-positive T-cells to patient response to immunotherapy
	Increases resistance to EGFR inhibitors
Melanoma	Novel biomarker for normal skin subpopulation responsible for tumorigenesis	[52, 53]
	SOX2 and Nestin differentiate between nevi and melanoma metastasis
	SOX2 and Nestin powerful diagnostic tools
Ovarian	Expression directly proportional to higher degree of malignancy	[56, 82]
Ovarian	Responsible for CSC therapy resistance	[56, 82]
Rectal	Predicts poor distance recurrence for preoperative CRT patients	[91]
Rectal	Predicts poor prognosis for preoperative CRT patients	[91]
Sinonasal	SOX2 amplification identifies carcinomas more likely to relapse	[71]

The role of SOX2 in the clinic has been studied and expression has been correlated to patient survival, prognosis and therapy. SOX2 has been shown to play different roles depending on cancer type and can predict both better and worse outcomes for patients. Moreover, SOX2 has proven its use as a prognostic marker in melanoma, colorectal, gastric and lung cancer.

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