HOXA5 indicates poor prognosis and suppresses cell proliferation by regulating p21 expression in non small cell lung cancer

Homeobox genes, a superfamily of evolutionarily conserved developmental genes, function as critical master regulatory factors in controlling body plan specification and cell fate determination. Recently, a substantial body of evidence indicates that the aberrant Homeobox (HOX) genes also play key roles in the development of cancers. Many reports have shown not only that HOX gene expression is upregulated or downregulated in many cancers but also that the expression of specific HOX genes tends to differ based on tissue type. Homeobox A5 (HOXA5) is a master regulator of the morphogenesis and cell differentiation, and its expression is also downregulated in many cancers mediated by DNA methylation. However, its biological role and clinical significance in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) development and progression are not well documented. In this study, we found that expression levels of HOXA5 were significantly decreased in NSCLC tissues compared with adjacent normal tissues. Its expression level was significantly correlated with tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stages, tumor size, and lymph node metastasis. Moreover, patients with lower levels of HOXA5 expression had a relatively poor prognosis. Furthermore, ectopic overexpression of HOXA5 could inhibit cell proliferation and invasion, while knockdown HOXA5 by siRNA promoted cell proliferation in NSCLC cells partly via regulating p21 expression. Our findings present that decreased HOXA5 could be identified as a poor prognostic biomarker in NSCLC and regulate cell proliferation and invasion.