Overexpression of GLUT-1 in the invasion front is associated with depth of oral squamous cell carcinoma and prognosis.
OBJECTIVE
Malignant cells show increased uptake, which is considered to be facilitated by glucose transporters (GLUTs). Increased GLUT-1 expression has been reported in many human cancers. We hypothesized that a oral squamous cell carcinoma, characterized by high frequency of lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis or local recurrences, was associated with GLUT-1 overexpression in invasion front.


METHODS
GLUT-1 immunostaining in invasion front was studied on 24 oral squamous cell carcinomas, and revealed the correlation with the clinical characteristics.


RESULTS
The analysis showed that all oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and GLUT-1 expression correlated the depth of the tumors (P = 0.023 < 0.05). Furthermore the survival of patients who had overexpression of invasion front was significant shorter than that of patients with GLUT-1 weakly positive (P = 0.046 < 0.05). No significant association was noted between GLUT-1 immunostaining and either age, gender, subsites, tumor size, or lymph node status.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study shows that GLUT-1 served as a marker indicating that tumors with deep invasion tended to result in a worse prognosis in patients due to either lymph node metastasis, a recurrence of the primary lesion or distant metastasis.
Ohba
Shinichi
S
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. sooba@juntendo.ac.jp
Fujii
Hiroaki
H
Ito
Shin
S
Fujimaki
Mitsuhisa
M
Matsumoto
Fumihiko
F
Furukawa
Masayuki
M
Yokoyama
Junkichi
J
Kusunoki
Takeshi
T
Ikeda
Katsuhisa
K
Hino
Okio
O
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary; D004396:Coloring Agents; D003593:Cytoplasm / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics; D051272:Glucose Transporter Type 1 / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D015996:Survival Rate
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004396:Coloring Agents; D051272:Glucose Transporter Type 1