Expression of POSTN mRNA is associated with osteosarcoma prognosis

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effect of POSTN mRNA expression on osteosarcoma prognosis. Methods: The carcinoma and adjacent tissues were collected from 81 primary osteosarcoma patients. The expression level of POSTN mRNA in bone tissues was detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method and the differences between two groups were compared. The relationships of POSTN mRNA expression with clinical indexes and the survival rate of osteosarcoma patients during follow-up were also analyzed. Results: The over-expression level of POSTN mRNA in carcinoma tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent tissues (P<0.05). The clinical stages, soft tissue infiltration and preoperative metastasis of osteosarcoma patients were related to POSTN mRNA expression. Postoperative follow-up results displayed that with different POSTN mRNA expression levels, the survival time of patients was significantly different, and that the higher the POSTN mRNA over-expression was, the shorter the patients survived, with statistically significant differences (P<0.05). The clinical stages, soft tissue infiltration, preoperative metastasis and POSTN mRNA expression were proved by Cox regression analysis to be the prognosis-related factors of osteosarcoma (P<0.05). Conclusions: POSTN mRNA may be an important factor for osteosarcoma prognosis, which needs to be further investigated in terms of the protein level.