The prognostic values of signal transducers activators of transcription family in ovarian cancer

Abstract

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT), a family of latent cytoplasmic transcription factors, are composed of seven identified members (STAT1, STAT2, STAT3, STAT4, STAT5a, STAT5b, STAT6). STATs are associated with several biological processes such as cell proliferation, invasion, and metastasis in various cancer types. In addition, the STAT family has been well studied as a prognostic predictor for a considerable number of solid tumors. However, the prognostic value of the STAT family in ovarian cancer patients remains unclear. In our present study, we intend to access the prognostic roles of the STAT family in ovarian carcinoma through the ‘Kaplan–Meier plotter’ (KM plotter) online database, which collected gene expression data and survival information (overall survival (OS)) from a total of 1582 ovarian cancer patients. Our results show that high mRNA expression of STAT1, STAT4, STAT5a, STAT5b, and STAT6, are correlated to a better OS of ovarian cancer patients, especially the high level of STAT1 and STAT4 are significantly related to a favorable OS for serous ovarian cancer patients. We further accessed the prognostic roles of individual STATs in other clinicopathological features, such as pathological grades, clinical stages, and TP53 mutation, and found that these genes indicate a favorable prognosis especially for late stage, poor differentiation, and TP53 mutated ovarian cancer patients. In conclusion, these results suggest that the STAT family plays a significant prognostic role in ovarian carcinoma and individual STATs, except STAT2 and STAT3, may act as favorable prognostic markers in ovarian cancer.