1. ¹Institute of Pathology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
2. ²Clinic of General and Transplantation Surgery, University Ulm, Ulm, Germany
3. ³Department of Radiotherapy, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
4. ⁴Junior Research Group, Institute of Pathology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
5. ⁵Probiodrug AG, Halle, Germany
6. ⁶Institute of Medical Biometry and Informatics, University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle, Germany
7. ⁷Molecular Pharmacology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA
8. ⁸Hartwell Center for Bioinformatics and Biotechnology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA
9. ⁹Department of Urology, Technical University Dresden, Dresden, Germany

Correspondence: Dr H Taubert, Institute of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University Halle-Wittenberg, Magdeburger Strasse 14, Halle/Saale D-06097, Germany. E-mail: helge.taubert@medizin.uni-halle.de

¹⁰These authors contributed equally to this work.

Received 23 February 2007; Revised 13 April 2007; Accepted 13 April 2007; Published online 21 May 2007.

Abstract

Cancer stem cells can play an important role in tumorigenesis and tumor progression. However, it is still difficult to detect and isolate cancer stem cells. An alternative approach is to analyse stem cell-associated gene expression. We investigated the coexpression of three stem cell-associated genes, Hiwi, hTERT and survivin, by quantitative real-time–PCR in 104 primary soft-tissue sarcomas (STS). Multivariate Cox's proportional hazards regression analyses allowed correlating gene expression with overall survival for STS patients. Coexpression of all three stem cell-associated genes resulted in a significantly increased risk of tumor-related death. Importantly, tumors of patients with the poorest prognosis were of all four tumor stages, suggesting that their risk is based upon coexpression of stem cell-associated genes rather than on tumor stage.