Prognostic role of c-Jun activation in patients with areca quid chewing-related oral squamous cell carcinomas in Taiwan.
BACKGROUND
Overexpression or activation of c-Jun has been implicated in the pathogenesis of several types of cancer. Treatment of oral cells with areca nut extract in culture can increase c-Jun proto-oncogene mRNA levels. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible role of c-Jun activation in the pathogenesis and prognosis of areca quid chewing-related oral cancer in Taiwan.


METHODS
We immunohistochemically examined c-Jun protein activation in human oral squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) using an anti-phosphospecific c-Jun (pc-Jun) antibody on paraffin-embedded sections.


RESULTS
Positive pc-Jun staining was observed in 42 of 70 (60%) cases of oral SCC. No significant correlation was found between pc-Jun expression and patients' age, gender, oral habit, cancer location, clinical stage, tumor size and lymph node status. Kaplan-Meier curves showed that oral SCC patients with positive pc-Jun staining or positive lymph node metastasis had significantly shorter overall survival (p < 0.018 and 0.001, respectively, by log-rank test).


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that c-Jun activation may play an important role in the carcinogenesis of oral SCC. Positive pc-Jun staining may serve as an adjuvant marker of worse prognosis in patients with oral SCC in Taiwan.
Kuo
Ru-Cheng
RC
School of Dentistry, College of Medicine and Department of Dentistry, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Lin
Chiao-Ying
CY
Kuo
Mark Yen-Ping
MY
D001114:Areca / Q000009:adverse effects; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D048031:JNK Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality*; D011379:Prognosis; D000090063:Proto-Oncogene Mas; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C000715470:MAS1 protein, human; D000090063:Proto-Oncogene Mas; D048031:JNK Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases