Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate the role of autophagy related gene 7 (ATG7) in non-melanoma skin cancer.
Subjects and Methods
This retrospective and prospective case-control study was performed on 104 patients with non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) in addition to 20 apparently healthy subjects matched for age and sex as a control group. Multiple skin biopsies were taken for immunohistochemical evaluation of ATG7 expression.
Results
Both epithelial and stromal ATG7 were expressed in all participants while all patients showed nucleocytoplasmic localization and controls showed both cytoplasmic and nucleocytoplasmic expression. In addition, significantly higher H-scores of ATG7 in both epithelium and stroma were detected in patients compared to controls (P<0.001).
Conclusion
ATG7 nucleocytoplasmic topographic localization might be involved in the pathogenesis of NMSC, which can open the gate for new target therapy for this skin cancer.
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.