() expression is acknowledged as a poor clinical prognostic factor in various tumors. However, the clinical characteristics and biological functions of in prostate cancer (PCa) are still to be clarified. The aim of our study was to evaluate the association of expression during PCa progression and its potential role in prognosis. We analyzed mRNA expression of the gene with various clinicopathological features using the Cancer Genome Atlas and GSE21032 dataset. Immunohistochemical assays were used to detect the protein expression levels of in human PCa tissue microarrays. Furthermore, we characterized the role of in PCa progression through experiments using a knockout. Immunohistochemistry and public datasets revealed that expression was increased in PCa with: a high Gleason score; advanced pathological stage; and positive surgical margins. In addition, upregulation of was correlated with shorter biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival and overall survival. After we knocked-out in DU145 and LNCaP cells, the phenotypic results showed that the ability of the knockouts to proliferate, migrate, and invade was attenuated; but that apoptosis was promoted. Our data support an oncogenic role for in PCa progression. Moreover, increased expression was identified as an independent factor in predicting bCR-free survival and disease-free survival in PCa patients.

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