Expression of fascin in oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas has prognostic significance - a tissue microarray study of 129 cases.
OBJECTIVE
To elucidate the role of fascin in oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) by correlation with clinical parameters.


RESULTS
Paraffin sections using tissue microarrays of 129 patients with OSCC were investigated immunohistochemically. Fascin protein was overexpressed in OSCC cells compared with their non-neoplastic epithelial counterparts. For evaluating the intensity of fascin, 39 (30.2%) were classified as weakly immunoreactive, 76 (58.9%) as moderate reactive and 14 (10.9%) as intensely reactive. For evaluating the distribution of fascin, 64 (49.6%) were classified as < 55% and 65 (50.4%) were classified as >/= 55%. Fascin protein expression was correlated with size or extent of the tumour (P < 0.001), positive lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001), distant metastasis (P = 0.014) and clinical staging (P < 0.001). The immunoreactivity scores of fascin in OSCC were variable but showed significant correlation with histological grade, clinical TNM system and stage.


CONCLUSIONS
Expression of fascin protein may play an important role in progression of OSCC. Overexpression of fascin contributes to a more aggressive clinical course and suggests the potential of fascin as a new molecular target for therapeutic intervention.
Chen
S F
SF
Institute of Clinical Dentistry, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Yang
S F
SF
Li
J W
JW
Nieh
P C
PC
Lin
S Y
SY
Fu
E
E
Bai
C Y
CY
Jin
J S
JS
Lin
C Y
CY
Nieh
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008840:Microfilament Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D040081:Protein Array Analysis
D002352:Carrier Proteins; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; C020324:fascin