title: Expression of podoplanin and prognosis in oropharyngeal cancer.
abstract: It has been shown that podoplanin expression is associated with carcinoma of the aerodigestive tract. Recent studies indicate that podoplanin may serve as a prognostic biomarker in oral carcinoma. In order to provide evidence on the role of podoplanin in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, we evaluated the prognostic impact of podoplanin in these patients. We analyzed formalin-fixed tissue samples from 107 consecutive patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. HPV typing and immunohistochemical staining for both p16 and podoplanin were performed. Expression of podoplanin was seen in 38.3% of all cases. We found no correlation of the podoplanin scores with either p16 expression or with HPV status. There was no significant correlation of podoplanin expression with the staging variables T, N, M, and tumor grading. Podoplanin expression did neither influence the 5-year overall survival nor the 5-year disease-free survival. Concluding, we could not find a prognostic role of podoplanin expression neither in the HPV-positive cases nor in the HPV-negative cases. It appears that podoplanin is not expressed as often in oropharyngeal cancer compared to oral cancer. We could not show any relation of lymph node metastases and podoplanin expression in this homogenous cohort of tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Cologne, Medical Faculty, Cologne, Germany, simon.preuss@uni-koeln.de.
authors.forename: Simon F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Preuss
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anagiotos
authors.forename: Inga M C
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Seuthe
authors.forename: Uta
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Drebber
authors.forename: Inga
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Wedemeyer
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kreppel
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Semrau
authors.forename: Guy D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Eslick
authors.forename: Jens Peter
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Klussmann
authors.forename: Christian U
authors.initials: CU
authors.lastname: Huebbers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D027383:Papillomaviridae / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011379:Prognosis; D000098853:Podoplanin
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; C117468:PDPN protein, human; D000098853:Podoplanin