The expression and clinical significance of RhoA, Ezrin and CD44 in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Objective:To investigate the expression of RhoA, Ezrin and CD44 proteins in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), and analyze their roles and mutual relations in invasion and metastasis.Method:The expressions of RhoA, Ezrin and CD44 in 68 specimens of LSCC and 35 specimens of normal laryngeal mucosa tissues were detected by immunohistochemical SABC staining. The results were correlated with clinicopathological parameters.Result:The positive expression rates of RhoA, Ezrin and CD44 in LSCC were 80.9%,82,4% and 70.6%, and the positive expression rates of RhoA, Ezrin and CD44 in normal laryngeal mucosa tissues were 28.5%, 25.7% and 20%, respectively. The expressions of RhoA, Ezrin and CD44 were significantly correlated to depth of invasion (T), lymph node metastasis (N), clinical TNM stage, tumor grade respectively (P< 0.05), but not to age, gender, smoking, tumor location (P> 0.05). The expression of RhoA was positively correlated to that of Ezrin in LSCC, and the expression of Ezrin was positively correlated to that of CD44 in LSCC too (P< 0.05).Conclusion:Our findings suggested that high expressions of RhoA, Ezrin and CD44 might play an important role in the malignant progression of invasion and metastasis of LSCC, which indicated that they might have played synergistic effects in the process.