Crosstalk between SOX2 and cytokine signaling in endometrial carcinoma

ROCK Inhibitors as an Alternative Therapy for Corneal Grafting: A Systematic Review

Currently, corneal blindness is affecting >10 million individuals worldwide, and there is a significant unmet medical need because only 1.5% of transplantation needs are met globally due to a lack of high-quality grafts. In light of this global health disaster, researchers are developing corneal substitutes that can resemble the human cornea in vivo and replace human donor tissue. Thus, this review examines ROCK (Rho-associated coiled-coil containing protein kinases) inhibitors as a potential corneal wound-healing (CWH) therapy by reviewing the existing clinical and nonclinical findings. The systematic review was done from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for CWH, corneal injury, corneal endothelial wound healing, ROCK inhibitors, Fasudil, Netarsudil, Ripasudil, Y-27632, clinical trial, clinical study, case series, case reports, preclinical study, in vivo, and in vitro studies. After removing duplicates, all downloaded articles were examined. The literature search included the data till January 2023. This review summarized the results of ROCK inhibitors in clinical and preclinical trials. In a clinical trial, various ROCK inhibitors improved CWH in individuals with open-angle glaucoma, cataract, iris cyst, ocular hypertension, and other ocular diseases. ROCK inhibitors also improved ocular wound healing by increasing cell adhesion, migration, and proliferation in vitro and in vivo. ROCK inhibitors have antifibrotic, antiangiogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic characteristics in CWH, according to the existing research. ROCK inhibitors were effective topical treatments for corneal infections. Ripasudil, Y-27632, H-1152, Y-39983, and AMA0526 are a few new ROCK inhibitors that may help CWH and replace human donor tissue.

A cancer-associated METTL14 mutation induces aberrant m6A modification, affecting tumor growth

The methyltransferase-like 3 (METTL3)-/METTL14-containing complex predominantly catalyzes N⁶-methyladenosine (m6A) modification, which affects mRNA stability. Although the METTL14 R298P mutation is found in multiple cancer types, its biological effects are not completely understood. Here, we show that the heterozygous R298P mutation promotes cancer cell proliferation, whereas the homozygous mutation reduces proliferation. Methylated RNA immunoprecipitation sequencing analysis indicates that the R298P mutation reduces m6A modification at canonical motifs. Furthermore, this mutation induces m6A modification at aberrant motifs, which is evident only in cell lines harboring the homozygous mutation. The aberrant recognition of m6A modification sites alters the methylation efficiency at surrounding canonical motifs. One example is c-MET mRNA, which is highly methylated at canonical motifs close to the aberrantly methylated sites. Consequently, c-MET mRNA is severely destabilized, reducing c-Myc expression and suppressing cell proliferation. These data suggest that the METTL14 R298P mutation affects target recognition for m6A modification, perturbing gene expression patterns and cell growth.

Identification of novel key genes associated with uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma progression and prognosis

Background

Uterine corpus endometrial carcinoma (UCEC) is a common malignant cancer type which affects the health of women worldwide. However, its molecular mechanism has not been elucidated.

Methods

To identify the hub modules and genes in UCEC associated with clinical phenotypes, the RNA sequencing data and clinical data of 543 UCEC samples were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and then subjected to weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). To explore the potential biological function of the hub modules, Gene Ontology (GO) annotation and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses were conducted. Genes differentially expressed in UCEC were screened according to TCGA data using the "gdcDEAnalysis" package in R (The R Foundation for Statistical Computing). After intersecting with hub genes, the shared genes were used for further survival analyses. The relationship between gene expression level and clinical phenotype was analyzed in the TCGA-UCEC cohort in The University of ALabama at Birmingham CANcer data analysis Portal and the Human Protein Atlas. The microarray data set GSE17025 was also analyzed to validate the gene expression profiles.

Results

There were 19 coexpression modules generated by WGCNA. Among them, 2 modules with 198 hub genes were highly correlated with clinical features (especially histologic grade and clinical stage). Meanwhile, 4,003 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened out, and 164 DEGs overlapped with hub genes. Survival analyses revealed that high expression of GINS4 and low expression of ESR1 showed a trend of poor prognosis. Further analyses demonstrated that both messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein expression profiles of GINS4 and ESR1 were significantly associated with UCEC development and progression in TCGA and GSE17025 cohorts.

Conclusions

Based on the integrated bioinformatic analyses, our data indicated that GINS4 and ESR1 might serve as potential prognostic markers and targets for UCEC therapy.

The value of SOX2 in the differential diagnosis of SMARCA4 (BRG1)-deficient uterine neoplasms

SWI/SNF-related, matrix-associated, actin-dependent regulator of chromatin, subfamily A, member 4 (SMARCA4/BRG1) deficient undifferentiated uterine sarcoma (SDUS) is a recently described uterine sarcoma. It is characterized by predominantly rhabdoid or large epithelioid cells with abundant cytoplasm and varying components of small and spindle cells, resembling the "large cell variant" of small cell carcinoma of ovary, hypercalcemic type (SCCOHT). In addition, SMARCA4 inactivating mutations have been described as the driver mutations in SDUS. However, undifferentiated (UDEC) and dedifferentiated endometrial carcinomas (DDEC) may show some clinical and morphological overlaps with SDUS, and about 20% reported UDEC/DDEC cases also have loss expression of SMARCA4. SDUS is a very aggressive disease and universally lethal in all reported cases. Differentiating SDUS from UDEC/DDEC is relevant for the prognosis, pathogenesis and possible targeted therapies for the disease. In this study, we compared the clinical, morphological, immunohistochemical and molecular characteristics of 10 tumors including 2 SDUS, 2 SCCOHT, 1 uterine carcinoma with neuroendocrine differentiation (UDEC?) and 5 UDEC/DDEC. All 5 UDEC/DDEC cases showed strong and diffuse nuclear positivity for SOX2, while all SCCOHT and SDUS cases were completely negative. We concluded that SOX2 could be a useful marker for the differential diagnosis between SDUS and UDEC/DDEC.

UPF1 contributes to the maintenance of endometrial cancer stem cell phenotype by stabilizing LINC00963

Endometrial cancer stem cells (ECSCs) play a vital role in endometrial cancer (EC) metastasis, relapse, and chemoresistance. However, the molecular mechanisms that sustain ECSCs remain elusive. Here, we showed that the expression of UPF1 was upregulated in EC tissues and ECSCs and correlated with poor clinicopathological characteristics. UPF1 silencing suppressed ECSC hallmarks, such as sphere formation ability, carboplatin resistance, migration and invasion, and cell cycle progression. UPF1 regulated the behavior and fate of ECSCs by stabilizing LINC00963. LINC00963 further shares the same miRNA response element with the core transcription factor SOX2 and relieved the suppression of SOX2 by miR-508-5p in self-renewing ECSCs. Notably, inhibition of UPF1 and LINC00963 in combination severely impaired the in vivo tumorigenic potential of ECSCs. We demonstrate that the UPF1/LINC00963/miR-508-5p/SOX2 axis has potential value in modulating ECSC maintenance, chemoresistance, and tumorigenesis in EC, which highlights a novel promising target for EC treatment.

LC3A-mediated autophagy regulates lung cancer cell plasticity

ABBREVIATIONS

ATG14: autophagy related 14; CDH2: cadherin 2; ChIP-qPCR: chromatin immunoprecipitation quantitative polymerase chain reaction; CQ: chloroquine; ECAR: extracellular acidification rate; EMT: epithelial-mesenchymal transition; EPCAM: epithelial cell adhesion molecule; MAP1LC3A/LC3A: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 alpha; MAP1LC3B/LC3B: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 beta; MAP1LC3C/LC3C: microtubule associated protein 1 light chain 3 gamma; NDUFV2: NADH:ubiquinone oxidoreductase core subunit V2; OCR: oxygen consumption rate; ROS: reactive oxygen species; RT-qPCR: reverse-transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction; SC: scrambled control; shRNA: short hairpin RNA; SNAI2: snail family transcriptional repressor 2; SOX2: SRY-box transcription factor 2; SQSTM1/p62: sequestosome 1; TGFB/TGF-β: transforming growth factor beta; TOMM20: translocase of outer mitochondrial membrane 20; ZEB1: zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1.

Using a short questionnaire of the perimenopausal fatigue scale to evaluate perimenopausal women prone to fatigue syndrome

OBJECTIVE

Fatigue, a painful and unpleasant subjective experience, is common in perimenopausal women. Therefore, an effective tool to evaluate the fatigue-precipitating factor is important for perimenopausal women prone to fatigue syndrome.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study was surveyed by short-term perimenopausal fatigue scale. The enrollment period was from November 2019 to January 2020. The subjects were perimenopausal women prone to perimenopausal fatigue. The differences between the fatigue-precipitating factors and the degrees of fatigue and disturbance were determined by one-way ANOVA and t test.

RESULTS

A total of 220 perimenopausal women with mean age of 51.3 years were included. Among these, 64.1% did not have a habit of regular exercise and 55.5% had chronic diseases. Fatigue syndrome was found in 64.1% of subjects, who were mainly presented by shoulder and neck pain and sleep problems. There were significant differences between "perimenopausal fatigue" and "duration" (p < 0.001); "with and without regular exercise" (p = 0.05); and "with and without chronic diseases" (p = 0.03).

CONCLUSIONS

Our study showed the perimenopausal fatigue syndrome is more frequently found in perimenopausal women who have a co-morbidity (chronic illness) and do not have a habit of regular exercise. An early identification and prompt intervention may help perimenopausal women to deal with their fatigue syndrome. The short questionnaire perimenopausal fatigue scale seems to be useful for screening perimenopausal women prone to fatigue syndrome.

Cytokine and epigenetic regulation of programmed death-ligand 1 in stem cell differentiation and cancer cell plasticity

Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1), an immune checkpoint ligand, is recognized as a potential target for cancer immunotherapy as well as for the induction of transplantation tolerance. However, how the crosstalk between stem cell programming and cytokine signaling regulates PD-L1 expression during stem cell differentiation and cancer cell plasticity remains unclear. Herein, we reported that PD-L1 expression was regulated by SOX2 during embryonic stem cell (ESC) differentiation and lung cancer cell plasticity. PD-L1 was induced during ESC differentiation to fibroblasts and was downregulated during SOX2-mediated reprogramming of fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Furthermore, SOX2 activation affected cancer cell plasticity and inhibited PD-L1 expression in lung cancer cells. We discovered that the H3K27ac signal at the PD-L1 locus was enhanced during ESC differentiation to fibroblasts as well as during cancer plasticity of SOX2-positive lung cancer cells to SOX2-negative counterparts. Romidepsin, an epigenetic modifier, induced PD-L1 expression in lung cancer cells, whereas TGF-β stimulation downregulated SOX2 but upregulated PD-L1 expression in lung cancer cells. Furthermore, in addition to PD-L1, the expressions of EGFR and its ligand HBEGF were downregulated by activation of endogenous SOX2 expression during lung cancer cell plasticity and iPSC reprogramming, and the activation of EGFR signaling by HBEGF upregulated PD-L1 expression in lung cancer cells. Together, our results reveal the crosstalk between SOX2 programming and cytokine stimulation influences PD-L1 expression, and these findings may provide insights into PD-L1-mediated therapeutics.

LINC00470 Stimulates Methylation of PTEN to Facilitate the Progression of Endometrial Cancer by Recruiting DNMT3a Through MYC

OBJECTIVES

Increasing researches emphasize the importance of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the development of endometrial cancer (EC). There is wide recognition that LINC00470 is a critical participant in the tumorigenesis of cancers such as gastric cancer and glioblastoma, but its possible effects on EC progression remain to be explored.

METHODS

We collected EC tissues and cells, where the expression of LINC00470 was determined, and followed by the Kaplan-Meier analysis of EC patient survival. We next examined the effect of LINC00470 and phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) on EC cell migration, invasion, tube formation in vitro, and angiogenesis in mice xenografted with tumor after gain- or loss-of-function treatments. RNA pull-down, Co-IP, and ChIP experiments were performed to analyze the targeting relationships among LINC00470, MYC and DNMT3a.

RESULTS

LINC00470 was aberrantly upregulated in EC and its high expression correlated to prognosis of EC patients. LINC00470 promoted invasiveness, migration, and angiogenesis of EC cells, and facilitated tumorigenesis and metastasis in vivo, but those effects were reversed by up-regulating PTEN. Functionally, LINC00470 bound to MYC in EC and that LINC00470 stimulated the binding of MYC to DNMT3a, and thus recruited DNMT3a through MYC to promote PTEN methylation.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings revealed that LINC00470 stimulated PTEN methylation to inhibit its expression by MYC-induced recruitment of DNMT3a, thus aggravating EC.

A synergy of estradiol with leptin modulates the long non-coding RNA NEAT1/ mmu-miR-204-5p/IGF1 axis in the uterus of high-fat-diet-induced obese ovariectomized mice

Obesity increases the risk of developing cancers for both males and females. This study investigated potential crosstalk between estradiol and leptin signaling pathways within the endometrium of high-fat-diet-induced obese ovariectomized mice to gain insight into possible links between obesity and endometrial cancer. We administered 17-β estradiol (0.2 μg/mouse subcutaneously) and/or recombinant mouse leptin (1 μg/g Bwt intraperitoneally.,) for 20 h to high-fat-diet-induced obese ovariectomized mice. The uterine tissues of experimental animals after treatments were studied by histological, immunohistochemical, quantitative real-time PCR (gene/miRNAs), and methylation-specific PCR analyses. Quantitative real-time PCR analysis revealed significantly increased expression of Cyclin d1, Esr1, Igf1, Igfbp2, Vegf, Oct4, and Pgr after estradiol and leptin co-treatment. Methylation-specific PCR results indicated that the hormonal dependent transcriptional regulation of Vegf, Igf1, and Pgr is independent of promoter methylation. The decreased expression of mmu- miR-204-5p after estradiol and leptin treatments correlated with the increased expression of long non-coding RNA Neat1. Insilico analysis confirmed the interaction of Neat1 and mmu- miR-204-5p and gene targets of mmu-miR-204-5p, including Igf1 were analyzed in this study. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed subcellular localization and increased expression of ESR, VEGF, phospho-Estrogen Receptor-α (pTyr537), and LEPR proteins following estradiol and leptin exposure. Overall, the data from our in vivo studies suggest the regulation of Neat1-mmu-miR-204-5p- Igf1 axis and associated gene expression changes in uterine tissue after estradiol and leptin co-treatment. In humans, long-term exposure to estradiol and leptin can alter endometrial homeostasis through the NEAT1-miR-204-5p-Igf1 axis and favor carcinogenic pathways, which provide mechanistic insight into the obesity-associated endometrial cancer.

Tumor Evolution in a Patient with Recurrent Endometrial Cancer and Synchronous Neuroendocrine Cancer and Response to Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatment

Both metachronous and synchronous tumors pose a diagnostic and clinical challenge, more so when one of the specimens demonstrates the rare neuroendocrine histology. We describe a patient with sarcoidosis who was treated for endometrial and ovarian neoplasm, recurred with two separate histologies (adenocarcinoma and high grade neuroendocrine), both associated with microsatellite instability (MSI)-high status. Targeted next-generation sequencing of tumor with synonymous somatic alterations pointed to a common ancestry of all three tumors and patient was successfully treated with a tailored immunotherapy regimen. Her sarcoidosis worsened only slightly, and immunotherapy did not need to be discontinued. This case highlights the importance of molecular testing for the optimal therapy of complex synchronous tumors and the need for communication between surgical and medical oncologists in patients with MSI-high cancer. KEY POINTS: The case of a patient with a recurrent gynecological cancer presenting as microsatellite instability (MSI)-high endometrial adenocarcinoma and MSI-high neuroendocrine tumor is reported. This case demonstrated a common genetic lineage with good response to checkpoint inhibition without clinical worsening of autoimmune disease. This article adds to the literature, suggesting tumor evolution with neuroendocrine differentiation in some cancers, and argues that a molecular-based approach to treatment might achieve better understanding and possibly superior treatment outcomes.

Hypoxia induces an endometrial cancer stem-like cell phenotype via HIF-dependent demethylation of SOX2 mRNA

Endometrial cancer stem cells (ECSCs) are stem-like cells endowed with self-renewal and differentiation abilities, and these cells are essential for cancer progression in endometrial cancer (EC). As hallmarks of the tumour microenvironment (TME), hypoxia and hypoxia-inducing factors (HIFs) give rise to the dysregulation of tumour stemness genes, such as SOX2. Against this backdrop, we investigated the regulatory mechanisms regulated by HIFs and SOX2 in ECSCs during EC development. Here, ECSCs isolated from EC cell lines and tissues were found to express stemness genes (CD133 and aldehyde dehydrogenase, ALDH1) following the induction of their ECSC expansion. Notably, m⁶A methylation of RNA and HIF-1α/2α-dependent AlkB homologue 5 (ALKBH5) participate in the regulation of HIFs and SOX2 in EC, as confirmed by the observations that mRNA levels of m⁶A demethylases and ALKBH5 significantly increase under hypoxic conditions in ECSCs. Moreover, hypoxia and high ALKBH5 levels restore the stem-like state of differentiated ECSCs and increase the ECSC-like phenotype, whereas the knockdown of HIFs or ALKBH5 significantly reduces their tumour initiation capacity. In addition, our findings validate the role of ALKBH5 in promoting SOX2 transcription via mRNA demethylation, thereby maintaining the stem-like state and tumorigenicity potential of ECSCs. In conclusion, these observations demonstrate a critical role for m⁶A methylation-mediated regulation of the HIF-ALKBH5-SOX2 axis during ECSC expansion in hypoxic TMEs.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) inhibits pro-angiogenic effects of breast cancer cells via down-regulating cellular and exosomal expression of angiogenic genes and microRNAs

AIMS

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) as an omega 3 free fatty acid has been reported to exert anti-angiogenesis effects. However, our current understanding regarding the precise mechanisms of such effects is still limited. Exosomes secreted by cancer cells may act as angiogenesis promoters. The aim of the study was to determine altered expression levels of HIF-1α, TGF-β, VEGFR, Snail1, Snail2 and SOX2 and their regulating microRNAs in MDA-MB-231 and BT-474 cell lines after treatment with DHA in both normoxic and hypoxic conditions.

MAIN METHODS

Human breast cancer cell lines including MDA-MB-231 and BT-474 were treated for 24 h with 100 uM DHA under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Exosomes were isolated from untreated and treated cells and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and western blotting. RNAs from cells and isolated exosomes were extracted and cDNAs were synthesized. Expression levels of miRNAs and their pro-angiogenic target genes were analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).

KEY FINDINGS

We showed significant decrease in the expression of pro-angiogenic genes including HIF1-α, TGF-β, SOX2, Snail1, Snail2 and VEGFR in cells and also their secreted exosomes after treatment with DHA in normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Also the expression levels of tumor suppressor miRs including miR-101, miR-199, miR-342 were increased and the expression levels of oncomiRs including mir-382 and miR-21 were decreased after treatment with DHA in cells and exosomes.

SIGNIFICANCE

DHA can alter the expression of pro-angiogenic genes and microRNA contents in breast cancer cells and their derived-exosomes in favor of the inhibition of angiogenesis. Our data demonstrated new insight into DHA's anti-cancer action to target not only breast cancer cells but also their derived exosomes to suppress tumor angiogenesis.

Identification of core genes in the progression of endometrial cancer and cancer cell-derived exosomes by an integrative analysis

Endometrial cancer is one of the most prevalent tumors of the female reproductive system causing serious health effects to women worldwide. Although numerous studies, including analysis of gene expression profile and cellular microenvironment have been reported in this field, pathogenesis of this disease remains unclear. In this study, we performed a system bioinformatics analysis of endometrial cancer using the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets (GSE17025, GSE63678, and GSE115810) to identify the core genes. In addition, exosomes derived from endometrial cancer cells were also isolated and identified. First, we analyzed the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between endometrial cancer tissues and normal tissues in clinic samples. We found that HAND2-AS1, PEG3, OGN, SFRP4, and OSR2 were co-expressed across all 3 datasets. Pathways analysis showed that several pathways associated with endometrial cancer, including "p53 signaling pathway", "Glutathione metabolism", "Cell cycle", and etc. Next, we selected DEGs with highly significant fold change and co-expressed across the 3 datasets and validated them in the TCGA database using Gene Expression Profiling Interactive Analysis (GEPIA). Finally, we performed a survival analysis and identified four genes (TOP2A, ASPM, EFEMP1, and FOXL2) that play key roles in endometrial cancer. We found up-regulation of TOP2A and ASPM in endometrial cancer tissues or cells, while EFEMP1 and FOXL2 were down-regulated. Furthermore, we isolated exosomes from the culturing supernatants of endometrial cancer cells (Ishikawa and HEC-1-A) and found that miR-133a, which regulates expression of FOXL2, were present in exosomes and that they could be delivered to normal endometrial cells. The common DEGs, pathways, and exosomal miRNAs identified in this study might play an important role in progression as well as diagnosis of endometrial cancer. In conclusion, our results provide insights into the pathogenesis and risk assessment of endometrial cancer. Even so, further studies are required to elucidate on the precise mechanism of action of these genes in endometrial cancer.

Functional Gene Clusters in Global Pathogenesis of Clear Cell Carcinoma of the Ovary Discovered by Integrated Analysis of Transcriptomes

Clear cell carcinoma of the ovary (ovarian clear cell carcinoma (OCCC)) is one epithelial ovarian carcinoma that is known to have a poor prognosis and a tendency for being refractory to treatment due to unclear pathogenesis. Published investigations of OCCC have mainly focused only on individual genes and lack of systematic integrated research to analyze the pathogenesis of OCCC in a genome-wide perspective. Thus, we conducted an integrated analysis using transcriptome datasets from a public domain database to determine genes that may be implicated in the pathogenesis involved in OCCC carcinogenesis. We used the data obtained from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) DataSets. We found six interactive functional gene clusters in the pathogenesis network of OCCC, including ribosomal protein, eukaryotic translation initiation factors, lactate, prostaglandin, proteasome, and insulin-like growth factor. This finding from our integrated analysis affords us a global understanding of the interactive network of OCCC pathogenesis.

Immunohistochemical analysis of SOX2 expression in small-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma of the endometrium

Small-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) of the endometrium is an extremely rare and highly aggressive carcinoma. Sex-determining region Y-box 2 (SOX2) is a master transcription factor regulating the self-renewal, maintenance of stem cell properties and pluripotency of embryonic stem cells, and recent studies revealed that SOX2 plays important roles in cancer growth and progression in several types of carcinomas, including small-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) of the lung and oesophagus. Few studies to date have analysed the association between SOX2 and endometrioid carcinoma, whereas the expression of SOX2 in small-cell NEC of the endometrium has not been investigated. The aim of the present study was to analyse the expression status of SOX2, p16 and paired-box gene (PAX) 8, a useful Müllerian marker, in endometrial small-cell NEC. A total of 4 patients with small-cell NEC of the endometrium were enrolled (median age, 70 years). Immunohistochemical studies revealed SOX2 expression in 3 patients and p16 expression in all patients. No patients exhibited positive immunoreactivity for PAX8. SOX2 expression has been reported to be associated with the pathogenesis of small-cell NEC of the oesophagus. Therefore, the results of the present study indicated that SOX2 expression plays an important role in the development of small-cell NEC of the endometrium and the oesophagus. Moreover, expression of p16 and loss of PAX8 do not indicate the origin of small-cell NEC of the endometrium.

The role of SOX family members in solid tumours and metastasis

Cancer is a heavy burden for humans across the world with high morbidity and mortality. Transcription factors including sex determining region Y (SRY)-related high-mobility group (HMG) box (SOX) proteins are thought to be involved in the regulation of specific biological processes. The deregulation of gene expression programs can lead to cancer development. Here, we review the role of the SOX family in breast cancer, prostate cancer, renal cell carcinoma, thyroid cancer, brain tumours, gastrointestinal and lung tumours as well as the entailing therapeutic implications. The SOX family consists of more than 20 members that mediate DNA binding by the HMG domain and have regulatory functions in development, cell-fate decision, and differentiation. SOX2, SOX4, SOX5, SOX8, SOX9, and SOX18 are up-regulated in different cancer types and have been found to be associated with poor prognosis, while the up-regulation of SOX11 and SOX30 appears to be favourable for the outcome in other cancer types. SOX2, SOX4, SOX5 and other SOX members are involved in tumorigenesis, e.g. SOX2 is markedly up-regulated in chemotherapy resistant cells. The SoxF family (SOX7, SOX17, SOX18) plays an important role in angio- and lymphangiogenesis, with SOX18 seemingly being an attractive target for anti-angiogenic therapy and the treatment of metastatic disease in cancer. In summary, SOX transcription factors play an important role in cancer progression, including tumorigenesis, changes in the tumour microenvironment, and metastasis. Certain SOX proteins are potential molecular markers for cancer prognosis and putative potential therapeutic targets, but further investigations are required to understand their physiological functions.