Expression of angiopoietin-like 4 and tenascin C but not  cathepsin C mRNA predicts prognosis of oral tongue  squamous cell carcinoma.
Analysis of gene expression using RNA from the paraffin-embedded tissues is becoming an important way to study cancer pathogenesis. In this article, total RNA was extracted from tissue of 158 cases of paraffin-embedded tongue cancer, and expression of angiopoietin-like 4, tenascin-C and cathepsin-C were detected by real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Our results demonstrated that high expression level of angiopoietin-like 4 or tenascin-C was predictive of poor prognosis of tongue cancer patients (p = 0.024 and p = 0.011, respectively), especially when expression levels of both genes were concomitantly high (p = 0.001). Additionally, high expression of angiopoietin-like 4 and tenascin-C, or concomitant high expression of angiopoietin-like 4 and tenascin-C were independent prognostic factors of poor survival in patients with tongue cancer. These results suggest that the improved method of RNA extraction is suitable for analysing gene expression of paraffin-embedded solid tumours. Angiopoietin-like and tenascin-C, especially the combination of angiopoietin-like 4 and tenascin-C, are useful for predicting the prognosis of the patients with tongue cancer, independent of lymph node metastasis status.
West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China.
Zhuomin
Z
Wang
Bo
B
Han
Zhuang
Z
Zhang
Jian
J
Pan
Hui
H
Xia
D000075803:Angiopoietin-Like Protein 4; D042682:Angiopoietins / Q000235:genetics*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis*; D020789:Cathepsin C / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D019063:Tenascin / Q000235:genetics*; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*
C474772:ANGPTL4 protein, human; D000075803:Angiopoietin-Like Protein 4; D042682:Angiopoietins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D019063:Tenascin; D020789:Cathepsin C