The role of insulinoma-associated protein 1 in predicting the progression and prognosis of human olfactory neuroblastoma in China

Objective: Recent studies have suggested that insulinoma-associated protein 1 (INSM1) is a useful marker for pathological diagnosis of neuroendocrine tumors. In the present study, we investigated the association between INSM1 expression and prognosis in patients with olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) and assessed the usefulness of INSM1 as a prognostic biomarker in these patients. Method: Immunohistochemistry was performed on 109 ONB patients who underwent endoscopic surgery at Beijing Tong Ren Hospital (Beijing, China) between June 2006 and November 2021 Patient age at the time of surgery ranged from 10 months to 72 years (mean age, 43.55 +/- 13.47 years). In total, 63 (57.8%) and 46 (42.2%) tumors occurred in male and female patients, respectively. The percentages of grade I-IV cases were 13.8% (15/109), 36.7% (40/109), 29.4% (32/109) and 20.2% (22/109), respectively. Results: The expression rate (moderately/strongly positive) of INSM1 was significantly higher in high-grade (IV; 83%; 45/54) than low-grade (I/II; 27%; 15/55) ONB cases. High expression levels of INSM1 were significantly positively associated with high pathological stage (p < 0.001), local recurrence, and death. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that patients with high INSM1 expression had significantly shorter disease-free survival (DFS) and mean survival (75.01 +/- 10.71 vs. 158.56 +/- 10.32) times, and shorter overall survival (OS). Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that INSM1 was an independent prognostic factor for DFS (HR: 4.963, 95%CI [2.11-10.84] p < 0.001) and OS (HR: 4.791, 95%CI [2.117-10.485], p < 0.001) after adjusting for sex, age, and tumor grade. In addition, INSM1 was an independent prognostic factor for DFS in patients treated with surgery (HR: 3.714, 95%CI [1.267-10.889], p = 0.017) and chemotherapy (HR: 5.574, 95%CI [1.584-19.612], p = 0.007). Conclusion: INSM1 expression had a positive association with the prognosis of patients with ONB and could serve as a prognostic biomarker in these patients.