Expression of cathepsin L in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its clinical significance.
OBJECTIVE
To study the expression of cathepsin L in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and analyze its relationship with clinicopathologic factors.


METHODS
The expression of cathepsin L was determined immunohistochemically in NPC, adjacent normal nasopharyngeal tissues and metastatic cervical lymph nodes. The correlation between its protein expression and clinicopathologic parameters as well as with long term follow-up data in NPC was analyzed.


RESULTS
The protein of cathepsin L was overexpressed in 47% primary tumor tissues, and in 89% metastatic cervical lymph node samples. Overexpression of cathepsin L was found to correlate with lymph node metastasis ( P = 0.04) and distant metastasis ( P = 0.01), and marginally with clinical stage and T classification, but not with patient age, gender and histological classification of tumor. Patients with overexpression of cathepsin L in tumor tissue had worse 5-year survival than those without such expression pattern ( P = 0.033). Multivariate survival analysis showed that cathepsin L protein expression level had a marginal significant correlation with prognosis of NPC.


CONCLUSIONS
Cathepsin L is a potential biomarker for prognosis of NPC and contributes to NPC metastasis.
Xu
X
X
Cancer Center, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan 430060, China. doctorxu120@yahoo.com.cn
Yuan
G
G
Liu
W
W
Zhang
Y
Y
Chen
W
W
D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D056668:Cathepsin L; D002403:Cathepsins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002403:Cathepsins; D003546:Cysteine Endopeptidases; C534281:CTSL protein, human; D056668:Cathepsin L