c-MET expression potentially contributes to the poor prognosis of rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is one of the most common soft-tissue sarcomas with a poor prognosis. c-MET is a prognostic biomarker associated with growth, proliferation, invasion, and metastasis in various carcinomas. In this study, we aim to investigate the expression of c-MET in RMS and its effect on the prognosis of patients with rhabdomyosarcoma. We performed immunohistochemistry and a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) to determine the expression levels of c-MET proteins and mRNAs. Results indicated that the c-MET protein and mRNA expression levels in the RMS samples were significantly higher than those in normal controls (P<0.01 and P=0.0492). However, the correlation between c-MET expression and any other clinicopathological parameter and survival was not significant (P=0.837). Nevertheless, c-MET expression had a significant influence on the overall survival rates of patients with ERMS (chi(2)=9.673, P=0.002) and fusion gene-negative patients (chi(2)=5.400, P=0.020). These findings suggest that c-MET may serve as a promising biomarker capable of predicting poor prognosis in patients with RMS.