Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41200217›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in urology2025

DOCK3 orchestrates metastasis and immune microenvironment in prostate cancer.

Jiaxue Han, Ming Zhang, Haipeng Zhou, Qiao Xiong, Xin Zhong, Ping Tan

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in urology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Jiaxue Han *Department of Urology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Ming Zhang *Department of Urology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Haipeng Zhou *Department of Urology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Qiao XiongDepartment of Urology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Xin ZhongDepartment of Urology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Ping TanDepartment of Urology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Introduction: Prostate cancer (PCa) is a leading cause of male cancer mortality, with metastasis and immune evasion posing major therapeutic challenges. DOCK3, a guanine nucleotide exchange factor implicated in cytoskeletal dynamics, is poorly characterized in PCa. This study investigates DOCK3's role in PCa metastasis and tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) remodeling. Methods: Multi-omics analyses integrated bulk RNA-seq from TCGA-PRAD (499 tumors/52 normals), scRNA-seq from GEO (45,325 cells), and genomic data. We performed: Differential expression analysis (DESeq2), Immune deconvolution (CIBERSORT,ssGSEA, xCell), WGCNA co-expression networks, Tumor mutational burden (TMB) assessment, Distant metastasis (M1 vs. M0) association studies, scRNA-seq clustering (Harmony/UMAP) and DE testing. Statistical significance thresholds: |log2FC|>1, padj<0.05. Results: DOCK3 expression was found to be significantly elevated in metastatic (M1) tumors compared to primary (M0) tumors (p<0.05) and demonstrated a strong positive correlation with a higher tumor mutational burden (TMB) in metastatic samples (p<0.001). Cellular specificity analysis revealed that DOCK3 was exclusively and highly enriched within malignant epithelial and stromal cells, specifically in Cluster 6, where it exhibited a log2 fold-change of 9.13 (padj<1e-200) and was expressed in 54% of cells, compared to a negligible presence in all other clusters. In the tumor microenvironment, elevated DOCK3 expression was associated with a significant increase in cytotoxic immune infiltration, notably of CD8 Conclusion: DOCK3 drives PCa metastasis through cytoskeletal dynamics while paradoxically promoting an immunologically active microenvironment. Its tumor-specific expression and association with aggressive clinical features nominate DOCK3 as a novel biomarker for risk stratification and a promising therapeutic target for combinatorial immunotherapy in immunologically "cold" PCa.

Indexed as

CDKN3DOCK3immune microenvironmentmetastasisprostate cancer

Identifiers

PMID41200217
PMCPMC12586128

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