Nerve growth factor and tyrosine kinase A receptor in oral squamous cell carcinoma: is there an association with perineural invasion?
OBJECTIVE
Perineural invasion (PNI) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is recognized as a significant predictor of outcome. PNI is associated with locoregional recurrence and decreased survival of patients with head and neck SCC. Nerve growth factor (NGF) has been shown to be involved in PNI in several malignancies, including breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers. We investigated the hypothesis that NGF and its high-affinity receptor tyrosine kinase A (TrkA) are highly expressed in cases of oral SCC that have histologic evidence of PNI.


METHODS
We performed immunohistochemistry on archived oral tongue SCC specimens from the established oral and general pathology databases at the University of California, San Francisco. The following groups were evaluated: 1) 21 T1/T2 oral tongue SCC cases with PNI and 2) 21 T1/T2 oral tongue SCC cases without histologic evidence of PNI.


RESULTS
Strong homogeneous cytoplasmic staining for NGF and TrkA was detected in the malignant cells in the PNI-positive group of tumors. In group II (PNI negative) NGF and TrkA were detected in the stroma cells or were very weakly expressed by the malignant cells. We were able to show the presence of NGF and TrkA in the cytoplasm of malignant squamous cells in tumors with histologic evidence of PNI. Immunostaining for NGF (P = .0001) and TrkA (P = .039) was significantly higher in the PNI-positive oral SCC group than in the PNI-negative oral SCC group.


CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that oral SCC with evidence of PNI shows increased expression of NGF and TrkA and suggests that NGF and TrkA are involved with the mechanism leading to PNI. Further investigations are warranted to determine the potential for use of NGF and TrkA as candidate biomarkers to predict progression and outcome.
Kolokythas
Antonia
A
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry, Chicago, IL, USA.
Cox
Darren P
DP
Dekker
Nusi
N
Schmidt
Brian L
BL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000378:metabolism*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003391:Cranial Nerves / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D020932:Nerve Growth Factor / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D011379:Prognosis; D020917:Receptor, trkA / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013363:Submandibular Gland / Q000378:metabolism; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D020932:Nerve Growth Factor; D020917:Receptor, trkA