Evaluation of EGFR as a prognostic and diagnostic marker for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients

Abstract

Abstract. Approximately 90% of all head and neck tumors are squamous cell carcinomas. The overall survival of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is low (≤50%). A non-invasive marker of disease progression is sorely required. The present study focused on the plasmatic levels of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in HNSCC patients (N=92) compared with healthy (N=29) and diabetic [type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM); N=26] controls. Enzymelinked immunosorbent assay using antibodies against the extracellular region of EGFR (L25-S645) was performed. No significant changes were observed between diabetic and healthy controls. However, there were significantly higher EGFR plasma levels in HNSCC patients compared with both control groups (P=0.001 and 0.005, respectively). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified a sensitivity of 76.09%, a specificity of 67.27% and an area under curve of 0.727 for this comparison. No significant association was observed between EGFR plasma levels and tumor stage, tumor grade, lymph node or distant metastasis occurrence, smoking habit or hypertension. However, the presence of human papillomavirus infection and T2DM in HNSCC patients had borderline effect on the plasma EGFR levels. Survival analysis revealed no significant influence of plasmatic EGFR levels on the overall and disease-specific survival of HNSCC patients. In conclusion, EGFR plasma levels appear to be a relatively promising diagnostic, but poor prognostic, HNSCC marker.

Impact of Nuclear Interleukin-1 Alpha and EGFR Expression on Recurrence and Survival Outcomes in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas

“…Despite these previous observations, little is known about the in situ tumor expression of IL-1 α in HNSCCs, the subcellular distribution of IL-1 α in HNSCC tumors, and the prognostic significance of IL-1 α localization in HNSCC patients. Additionally, EGFR is well known as a prognostic marker in HNSCC [16] and a crosstalk relationship has been previously reported between the EGFR and IL-1 pathways [17, 18]. The goals of this study are to (1) characterize the subcellular distribution of IL-1 α in OSCCs and (2) determine the prognostic significance of IL-1 α subcellular localization and combined EGFR/IL-1 α expression in OSCC patients.…”

Evaluation of serum epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in correlation to circulating tumor cells in patients with metastatic breast cancer

“…Similar results were reported in other tumor entities, such as lung cancer 30 , 31 , high-grade glioma 32 and malignant thymoma 33 . In malignant pleural mesothelioma 22 and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma 20 sEGFR levels were found to be significantly higher than in controls. Similarly, Tas et al .…”

An update on angiogenesis targeting in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

“…High expression is correlated with more advanced disease, resistance to traditional cytotoxic agents, and poor prognosis [8][9][10]. Similarly, EGFR has been shown to be upregulated in 70-100% of HNSCC and is also correlated with poor prognosis [11,12]. Preclinical models have provided evidence to support the targeting of angiogenic pathways in HNSCC [13,14].…”