Background: The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of CDK5 regulatory subunit-associated protein 1-like 1 (CDKAL1) expression on the survival of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) patients.
Methods: A total of 140 non-metastatic NPC patients were retrospectively analyzed. The expression of CDKAL1 was detected by immunohistochemistry.
Results: The CDKAL1-negative group exhibited better overall survival (OS) according to Kaplan–Meier curve analysis (p = 0.006), with 5-year OS rates for the CDKAL1-negative and -positive groups of 89.7% and 70.2%, respectively. The CDKAL1-negative group also exhibited a tendency toward a better progression-free survival (PFS) rate. Multivariate analysis showed that CDKAL1 expression was independently associated with both OS (p = 0.002) and PFS (p = 0.043).
Conclusion: CDKAL1 expression is an independent negative predictor of patient survival in non-metastatic NPC.
Keywords: nasopharyngeal carcinoma, CDKAL1, overall survival, progression-free survival