Relationship of common variants in Krüppel-like factor 7 gene with susceptibility and prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract Background The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic value of Krüppel-like factor 7 (KLF7) for patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC). Methods The expression of KLF7 was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) in pairs of tumor tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues of OSCC. Chi-square (χ2) test was applied to evaluate the association of KLF7 expression with clinicopathological characteristics of OSCC patients. Overall survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method with log rank test. The cox proportional hazards model was used for univariate and multivariate analyses. Results The expression of KLF7 was remarkably increased in OSCC tissues compared with adjacent non-tumor tissues (P < 0.001). KLF7 expression was related to TNM stage (P = 0.006), tumor size (P = 0.010), smoking (P = 0.006) and drinking (P = 0.000). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that OSCC patients with high KLF7 expression had a poorer overall survival than those with low expression (log rank test, P = 0.018). Moreover, multivariate analyses showed that KLF7 was an independent prognostic factor for OSCC (P = 0.002 HR = 2.645 95%CI: 1.426–4.906). Conclusion Decreased expression of KLF7 may be a potential unfavorable prognostic factor for patients with OSCC.