High Expression of JMJD4 Is a Potential Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Histone demethylase JMJD4 is a burgeoning tumor marker, which has been proven to be associated with colon cancer, but the role it plays in kidney cancer has not yet been investigated. In the present study, we evaluated whether JMJD4 can be a prognostic marker of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) using data from public platform and in vitro experiments. Our results revealed that the expression of JMJD4 is higher in cancerous tissue than in normal tissues ( p < 0.001 ). High expression of JMJD4 is associated with a poor overall survival (OS) of ccRCC as compared with low expression of JMJD4 ( p = 0.015 ). JMJD4 showed significant relevance with M stage ( p = 0.016 ), gender ( p = 0.003 ), OS (0.018), disease-specific survival (DSS) (0.007), and percussion free interval (PFI) (0.041). Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses demonstrated that high JMJD4 expression had independent predictive value for OS in ccRCC patients ( hazard   ratio   HR = 1.563 , 95 % confidence   interval   CI = 1.055 ‐ 2.316 , and p = 0.026 ). Besides, in vitro experiments confirmed that high expression of JMJD4 can significantly promote the invasion ability ( p < 0.001 ), cloning ability ( p < 0.001 ), and proliferation ( p < 0.001 ) of renal cell carcinoma. In summary, high JMJD4 expression may be a prognostic marker in patients with kidney cancer.