Overexpression of JAK2: A predictor of unfavorable prognosis for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Purpose: Analysis of the nasopharyngeal carcinoma public transcriptome revealed JAK2 was significantly upregulated in tumors, which encouraged us to investigate its prognostic significance and mutational status. Materials & methods: We assessed the immune-expression of JAK2 and its relationships with various clinicopathological parameters. JAK2 mutation was detected by PCR followed by sequencing. Results: High expression of JAK2 was significantly associated with advanced tumor staging (p = 0.019). JAK2 overexpression acted as an independent predictor for worse disease-specific survival (p = 0.005), distant metastasis-free survival (p = 0.036), local recurrence-free survival (p = 0.012) and overall survival (p = 0.007). JAK2 mutation was not detected in selected cases with JAK2 protein overexpression. Conclusion: JAK2 can serve as a valuable negative prognostic factor and a potential therapeutic target.