PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Yanli Luo AU - Junqing Yuan AU - Jin Huang AU - Tingting Yang AU - Jun Zhou AU - Juan Tang AU - Min Liu AU - Jie Chen AU - Chunyan Chen AU - Wentao Huang AU - Huizhen Zhang TI - Role of PRPS2 as a prognostic and therapeutic target in osteosarcoma AID - 10.1136/jclinpath-2020-206505 DP - 2021 May 01 TA - Journal of Clinical Pathology PG - 321--326 VI - 74 IP - 5 4099 - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/74/5/321.short 4100 - http://jcp.bmj.com/content/74/5/321.full SO - J Clin Pathol2021 May 01; 74 AB - Aims Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common primary malignant tumour of the bone. However, further improvement in survival has not been achieved due to a lack of well-validated prognostic markers and more effective therapeutic agents. Recently, the c-Myc–phosphoribosyl pyrophosphate synthetase 2 (PRPS2) pathway has been shown to promote nucleic acid metabolism and cancer cell proliferation in malignant melanoma; phosphorylated mammalian target of rapamycin (p-mTOR) has been upregulated and an effective therapeutic target in OS. However, the p-mTOR–PRPS2 pathway has not been evaluated in OS.Methods In this study, the expression level of PRPS2, p-mTOR and marker of proliferation (MKI-67) was observed in a cohort of specimens (including 236 OS cases and 56 control samples) using immunohistochemistry, and the association between expression level and clinicopathological characteristics of patients with OS was analysed.Results PRPS2 protein level, which is related to tumour proliferation, was higher in OS cells (p=0.003) than in fibrous dysplasia, and the higher PRPS2 protein level was associated with a higher tumour recurrence (p=0.001). In addition, our statistical analysis confirmed that PRPS2 is a novel, independent prognostic indicator of OS. Finally, we found that the expression of p-mTOR was associated with the poor prognosis of patients with OS (p<0.05).Conclusions PRPS2 is an independent prognostic marker and a potential therapeutic target for OS.All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information.