title: Hepatocyte growth factor and c-Met immunoreactivity are associated with metastasis in high grade salivary gland carcinoma.
abstract: Interactions between hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and its receptor, c-Met, have been associated with invasion, metastasis and carcinogenesis in in vitro experiments. We investigated the relationship between HGF/c-Met immunoreactivity and the clinical features of 33 patients with high grade salivary gland carcinomas. c-Met and stromal HGF (expression of HGF in fibroblasts adjacent to tumor nests) were found to significantly correlate with regional lymph node and distant metastasis (p<0.05), but not with HGF expression, in tumor cells. Stromal HGF was also found to correlate with tumor size (p<0.05). In addition, a significant correlation between c-Met and stromal HGF expression (p<0.0001) was observed. Overall survival in patients with c-Met and stromal HGF immunoreactivity was significantly worse than in patients without c-Met and stromal HGF immunoreactivity (p=0.0002). The present findings suggest that HGF may bind to c-Met in a paracrine fashion, thereby enabling metastasis of high grade salivary gland carcinomas. Thus, HGF/c-Met immunoreactivity might be associated with a poor prognosis in patients with high grade salivary gland carcinomas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Maxillofacial Diagnostic Science, Division of Pathology, Kanagawa Dental College, 82 Inaoka-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 238-8580, Japan. ktsukino@kdcnet.ac.jp
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsukinoki
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yasuda
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mori
authors.forename: Shigeyuki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Asano
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Naito
authors.forename: Yoshihide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ota
authors.forename: R Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: RY
authors.lastname: Osamura
authors.forename: Yoshihisa
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Watanabe
mesh_terms: D002288:Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary; D018277:Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary; D005260:Female; D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D019859:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met / Q000378:metabolism*; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D017154:Stromal Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D017228:Hepatocyte Growth Factor; D019859:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-met