E‐cadherin expression in head and neck squamous‐cell carcinoma is associated with clinical outcome

Abstract

The cell-cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin has been shown to suppress invasive growth of epithelial cells in vitro, and loss of its expression is thought to be important in invasion and metastatic potential of epithelial tumors in vivo. We retrospectively studied the level of E-cadherin expression in 50 primary head and neck squamous-cell carcinomas (HNSCC) by immunohistochemical methods, on frozen sections, using anti-E-cadherin monoclonal antibody (MAb) 6F9. It concerned patients with different stages of carcinoma of larynx or oral cavity who had been treated with curative intention 30 months or more before. Percentages of membranous stained tumor cells were scored in 1 of 5 categories. Scores were generally low, as in 11/50 lesions < or = 5% cells were stained, and in 19/50 lesions only 6-25% cells showed membranous staining. In 9 lymph-node metastases evaluated, E-cadherin expression was in the same range as in the primary tumors. There was a significant correlation between the level of membranous E-cadherin expression in the primary tumor and the degree of differentiation. No relation was found with tumor size (pT) or regional lymph-node classification (pN). Nevertheless, 29 patients surviving> or = 30 months without evidence of disease had significantly higher levels of membranous E-cadherin expression in their primary tumors than 10 patients with unfavorable clinical course clearly related to recurrent and/or metastatic HNSCC. Moreover, this could only partially be explained by distinctions in differentiation grade between both groups. Our results suggest that membranous E-cadherin expression has prognostic importance in patients with HNSCC.

The Evaluation of both Metastasis and Prognosis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma by S100A4 and E-cadherin Immunostaining

“…The cell-cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin suppresses invasive growth of epithelial cells in vitro. Loss of expression is important in lymph node metastasis (28), leading to poor prognosis in oral SCC (28,29). In this study, the downregulation of E-cadherin expression in oral SCC correlated with increased lymph node metastasis (P=0.023) and poorer prognosis (P=0.0146), as seen in previous reports.…”

Relationships Between Clinical Behavior of Laryngeal Squamous Cell Carcinomas and Expression of VEGF, MMP-9 and E-Cadherin

“…However, it was not an independent prognostic factor in the disease-specific survival analysis. Mattijssen et al (1993) studied the level of E-cadherin expression in primary head and neck squamous-cell carcinomas. They reported a significant correlation between the level of E-cadherin expression in the primary tumor and the degree of differentiation, and no relation was found with tumor size or regional lymph-node classification.…”

Expression of E-cadherin, α-catenin, and β-catenin in the process of lymph node metastasis in oral squamous cell carcinoma

“…Changes or alteration in the function and expression of the cell to cell adhesion molecule, Ecadherin, a-catenin and b-catenin, have been postulated to be an early event in the multiple process of tumour metastasis and an important factor in tumour progression (Birchmeier et al, 1993;Ponta et al, 1994). A variety of studies regarding the relationship between the expression of E-cadherin, a-catenin, b-catenin and the existence of lymph node metastasis in human cancers have been performed and some authors found a significant correlation (Sato et al, 1999;Zheng et al, 1999), while others did not (Mattijssen et al, 1993;Andrews et al, 1997).…”