title: CT imaging correlates of genomic expression for oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Imaging correlates of genetic expression have been found for prognostic and predictive biomarkers of some malignant diseases, including breast and brain tumors. This study tests the hypothesis that imaging findings correlate with relevant genomic biomarkers in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma.
  
  
  METHODS
  Surplus frozen tissue from 27 untreated patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma who underwent preoperative CT imaging was analyzed for gene expression. A team of neuroradiologists blinded to the genomic analysis results reviewed an extensive list of CT findings. The imaging correlated with genomic expression for cyclin D1, angiogenesis-related genes (vascular endothelial growth factor receptors and ligands), which relate to enhancement on the basis of other tumor types; and epidermal growth factor receptor, which may relate to proliferation and mass effect.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors 1 and 2 correlated with the enhancement of the primary tumor (P = .018 and P = .025, respectively), whereas the epidermal growth factor receptor correlated with mass effect (P = .03). Other exploratory correlations included epidermal growth factor receptor to perineural invasion (P = .05), and certain vascular endothelial growth factor receptors and ligands to mass effect (P = .03) and increased (P = .01) or decreased (P = .02) primary tumor size.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We report that CT imaging correlates with gene expression in untreated oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma. Enhancement of the primary tumor and degree of mass effect correlate with relevant genomic biomarkers, which are also potential drug targets. Eventually, treatment decisions may be aided by combining imaging findings into meaningful phenotypes that relate directly to genomic biomarkers.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Head and Neck Surgery.
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Pickering
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Frederick
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Unruh
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: L E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Ginsberg
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: J N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Hamilton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D042501:Angiogenic Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D019940:Genes, bcl-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease / Q000235:genetics; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000235:genetics*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D042501:Angiogenic Proteins