title: Prognostic significance of nm23-H1 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: Recent studies indicated nm23-H1 played a role in cancer progression. Therefore, we investigated clinical significance of nm23-H1 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). In total, 86 OSCC specimens were immunohistochemically stained with nm23-H1-specific monoclonal antibodies. Immunohistochemical staining of nm23-H1 was confirmed by immunoblotting. The relations between nm23-H1 expression and clinicopathologic variables were evaluated by chi(2) analysis. As increased size of primary tumour could escalate metastatic potential and the data of patients at the late T stage might confound statistical analyses, we thus paid special attention to 54 patients at the early T stage of OSCC. Statistical difference of survival was compared by a log-rank test. Immunohistochemically, nm23-H1 expression was detected in 48.8% (42 out of 86) of tumorous specimens. It positively correlated with larger primary tumour size (P=0.03) and inversely with cigarette-smoking habit (P=0.042). In patients at the early T stage, decreased nm23 expression was associated with increased incidence of lymph node metastasis (P=0.004) and indicated poor survival (P=0.014). Tumour nm23-H1 expression is a prognostic factor for predicting better survival in OSCC patients at the early T stage, which may reflect antimetastatic potential of nm23. Therefore, modulation of nm23-H1 expression in cancer cells can provide a novel possibility of improving therapeutic strategy at this stage. In addition, our results further indicated cigarette smoking could aggravate the extent of nm23-H1 expression and possibly disease progression of OSCC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei 112, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Y-F
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: K-C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: S-Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: J-H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Chiu
authors.forename: S-K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Tai
authors.forename: W-Y
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: L-S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000032:analysis; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor; D006801:Humans; D015151:Immunoblotting; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology*; D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase / Q000032:analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis; D011506:Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D054778:NM23 Nucleoside Diphosphate Kinases; D011506:Proteins; C517938:NME1 protein, human; D009701:Nucleoside-Diphosphate Kinase