Figure 7.

DCAF7 is an independent predictor of unfavorable prognosis in NPC patients. A) The protein expression of DCAF7 in 195 NPC tissues was scored based on the staining intensity. Scale bar = 50 µm. B) DCAF7 expression, as evaluated by IHC staining, was associated with the distant metastasis status. A two‐tailed χ2 test was used to calculate P values. C–E) Kaplan–Meier analysis further revealed strong correlations between DCAF7 expression and distant metastasis‐free survival (C), disease‐free survival (D), and overall survival (E), as calculated by the log‐rank test. F–H) Multivariate Cox regression analysis results revealing the prognostic significance of various clinical characteristics of NPC patients with distant metastasis‐free survival (F), disease‐free survival (G) and overall survival (H). I) Proposed working model. DCAF7 was notably upregulated in individuals with TPF‐resistant NPC, thereby enhancing cisplatin resistance and the metastatic potential of NPC cells. Mechanistically, DCAF7 functions as a scaffold to recruit USP10 for deubiquitylation and stabilization of G3BP1, thus facilitating formation of SG‐like structures in NPC cells and increasing the chemoresistance and metastasis of these cells.