Abstract
IntroductionHead and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a common cancer worldwide and has a poor prognosis. A biomarker predicting the clinical outcome of HNSCC patients could be useful in guiding treatment planning. Overexpression of the T lymphoma invasion and metastasis 1 (Tiam1) protein has been implicated in the migration and invasion of neoplasms. However, its role in HNSCC progression needs to be further validated. We detected the expression of Tiam1 in normal and tumor tissues and determined its association with clinical outcomes in patients with HNSCC.MethodsWe measured the expression of Tiam1 in normal and cancerous tissue samples from the patients with HNSCC treated at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between 2001 and 2008. The Tiam1 expression was scored from 0 to 12 based on the percentage of positively stained cells and the staining intensity. We then determined the diagnostic performance of this score in predicting overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS).ResultsOf the 194 evaluable patients, those with advanced disease, lymph node metastasis at diagnosis, and recurrence or metastasis during follow-up had a higher tendency of having high Tiam1 expression as compared with their counterparts (P < 0.05). The proportion of samples with high Tiam1 expression was also higher in cancerous tissues than in non-cancerous tissues (57.7% vs. 13.9%, P < 0.001). Cox proportional hazards regression analysis revealed that Tiam1 expression scores of 5 and greater independently predicted short OS and DFS.ConclusionThe Tiam1 expression is shown as a promising biomarker of clinical outcomes in patients with HNSCC and should be evaluated in prospective trials.
Highlights
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a common cancer worldwide and has a poor prognosis
We measured the expression of T lymphoma invasion and metastasis 1 (Tiam1) in normal and cancerous tissue samples from the patients with HNSCC treated at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between 2001 and 2008
Of the 194 evaluable patients, those with advanced disease, lymph node metastasis at diagnosis, and recur‐ rence or metastasis during follow-up had a higher tendency of having high Tiam1 expression as compared with their counterparts (P < 0.05)
Summary
Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is a common cancer worldwide and has a poor prognosis. A biomarker predicting the clinical outcome of HNSCC patients could be useful in guiding treatment plan‐ ning. We detected the expression of Tiam in normal and tumor tissues and determined its association with clinical outcomes in patients with HNSCC. Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, with approximately 600,000 new cases diagnosed per year [1,2,3]. A. The Rho-like proteins (Rho, Rac, and Cdc42) are essential regulators of cytoskeleton dynamics [5] and are crucial for malignant cell progression such as mitogenesis, kinase cascade activation, transcriptional activation, and DNA synthesis stimulation [6,7,8]. The activation of Cdc is critical for the invasion of HNSCC cells and is mediated by
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