Abstract
Expression of the CXCL12/CXCR4 chemokine axis has been related with the appearance of metastatic recurrence survival, including regional and distant recurrence, in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). RT-PCR was used to determine mRNA expression levels of CXCL12 and CXCR4 in biopsy tumor samples in 111 patients with HNSCC. Five-year regional recurrence-free survival for patients with low CXCR4 expression (n=39, 31.5%) was 97.4%, for patients with high CXCR4/high CXCL12 expression (n=22, 19.8%) it was 94.7%, and for patients with high CXCR4/low CXCL12 expression (n=50, 45.0%) it was 63.3%. We found significant differences in the regional recurrence-free survival according to CXCR4/CXCL12 expression values (P=0.001). HNSCC patients with high CXCR4 and low CXCL12 expression values had a significantly higher risk of regional recurrence and could benefit from a more intense treatment of lymph node areas in the neck.
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