Stroma biglycan expression can be a prognostic factor in prostate cancers

Objectives: This study analyzes the relationship between biglycan expression in prostate cancer and clinicopathological parameters to clarify the potential link between biglycan and prognosis and progression to castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 60 cases of prostate cancer patients who underwent robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy in Hokkaido University Hospital. Results: Biglycan was expressed in the tumor stroma but not in tumor cells. There was no significant relationship with biochemical recurrence (p = 0.5237), but the expression of biglycan was 36.1% in the group with progression to CRPC. This indicates a significant relationship with progression to CRPC (p = 0.0182). Furthermore, the expression of biglycan-positive blood vessels was significantly higher (15.9%) in the group with biochemical recurrence than in the group without biochemical recurrence (8.5%) (p = 0.0169). The biglycan-positive vessels were 28.6% in the group with progression to CRPC, which was significantly higher than that in the group without progression to CRPC (p < 0.0001). Conclusion: This is the first study to show that stroma biglycan is a useful prognostic factor for prostate cancer.