Prognostic value of c-Met expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Freudlsperger,Christian; Alexander,Dorothea; Reinert,Siegmar; Hoffmann,Juergen

doi:10.3892/etm_00000012

Prognostic value of c-Met expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Authors:
- Christian Freudlsperger
- Dorothea Alexander
- Siegmar Reinert
- Juergen Hoffmann
View Affiliations

Affiliations: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Tuebingen University Hospital, D-72076 Tuebingen, Germany. freudlsperger@klinikum.uni-tuebingen.de
Published online on: January 1, 2010 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm_00000012
Pages: 69-72

Metrics: Total Views: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )

Metrics: Total PDF Downloads: 0 (Spandidos Publications: | PMC Statistics: )

Cited By (CrossRef): 0 citations Loading Articles...

Abstract

Expression of c-Met, an oncogene encoding the receptor for the hepatocyte growth factor, was found to be associated with the progression of various types of human carcinomas including squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. This study was performed to analyze the prognostic role of c-Met in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) by detecting its expression in relation to clinicopathological features. Two hundred and eleven patients with OSCC were analyzed for c-Met expression by immunohistochemistry. Specimens with ≥50% of cancer cells showing staining for c-Met were considered c-Met-positive. A pairwise multiple-comparison procedure (Fisher's exact test) and survival analyses using the Kaplan-Meier method were used to analyze the data. One hundred and seventy-five patients (82.9%) showed positivity for c-Met, while 36 patients (17.1%) showed no immunopositivity. In contrast to published studies, there was no statistically significant correlation between c-Met expression and tumor size, lymph node status, distant metastasis or survival rates. However, a statistically significant negative correlation between c-Met expression and tumor stage was apparent (p=0.022). Hence, this study did not confirm the role of c-Met as a prognostic marker in patients with OSCC.

View Figures

View References

1.	Lothaire P, De Azambuja E, Dequanter D, et al: Molecular markers of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: promising signs in need of prospective evaluation. Head Neck. 28:256–269. 2006.
2.	De Herdt MJ and Baatenburg De Jong RJ: HGF and c-MET as potential orchestrators of invasive growth in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Front Biosci. 13:2516–2526. 2008.
3.	Lo Muzio L, Farina A, Rubini C, et al: Effect of c-Met expression on survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Tumour Biol. 27:115–121. 2006.
4.	Bottaro DP, Rubin JS, Faletto DL, et al: Identification of the hepatocyte growth factor receptor as the c-met proto-oncogene product. Science. 251:802–804. 1991.
5.	Birchmeier C and Gherardi E: Developmental roles of HGF/SF and its receptor, the c-met tyrosine kinase. Trends Cell Biol. 8:404–410. 1998.
6.	Nakamura T, Nishizawa T, Hagiya M, et al: Molecular cloning and expression of human hepatocyte growth factor. Nature. 342:440–443. 1989.
7.	Zarnegar R and Michalopoulos GK: The many faces of hepatocyte growth factor: from hepatopoiesis to hematopoiesis. J Cell Biol. 129:1177–1180. 1995.
8.	Chen YS, Wang JT, Chang YF, et al: Expression of hepatocyte growth factor and c-met protein is significantly associated with the progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma in Taiwan. J Oral Pathol Med. 33:209–217. 2004.
9.	To C and Tsao M: The roles of hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor and met receptor in human cancers (Review). Oncol Rep. 5:1013–1024. 1998.
10.	Uchida D, Kawamata H, Omotehara F, et al: Role of HGF/c-met system in invasion and metastasis of oral squamous cell carcinoma cells in vitro and its clinical significance. Int J Cancer. 93:489–496. 2001.
11.	Matsumoto K, Nakamura T and Kramer RH: Hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor induces tyrosine phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (p125(FAK)) and promotes migration and invasion by oral squamous cell carcinoma cells. J Biol Chem. 269:31807–31813. 1994.
12.	Patel SG and Shah JP: TNM staging of cancers of the head and neck: striving for uniformity among diversity. CA Cancer J Clin. 55:242–258. 2005.
13.	Kunkel M, Reichert T, Benz P, et al: Overexpression of Glut-1 and increased glucose metabolism in tumors are associated with a poor prognosis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Cancer. 97:1015–1024. 2003.
14.	Kim CH, Moon SK, Bae JH, et al: Expression of hepatocyte growth factor and c-Met in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Acta Otolaryngol. 126:88–94. 2006.
15.	Sawatsubashi M, Sasatomi E, Mizokami H, Tokunaga O and Shin T: Expression of c-Met in laryngeal carcinoma. Virchows Arch. 432:331–335. 1998.
16.	Galeazzi E, Olivero M, Gervasio FC, et al: Detection of MET oncogene/hepatocyte growth factor receptor in lymph node metastases from head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 254:S138–S143. 1997.
17.	Lo Muzio L, Leonardi R, Mignogna MD, et al: Scatter factor receptor (c-Met) as possible prognostic factor in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. Anticancer Res. 24:1063–1069. 2004.
18.	Marshall DD and Kornberg LJ: Overexpression of scatter factor and its receptor (c-met) in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Laryngoscope. 108:1413–1417. 1998.
19.	Nakajima M, Sawada H, Yamada Y, et al: The prognostic significance of amplification and overexpression of c-met and c-erb B-2 in human gastric carcinomas. Cancer. 85:1894–1902. 1999.
20.	Hanzawa M, Shindoh M, Higashino F, et al: Hepatocyte growth factor upregulates E1AF that induces oral squamous cell carcinoma cell invasion by activating matrix metalloproteinase genes. Carcinogenesis. 21:1079–1085. 2000.
21.	Murai M, Shen X, Huang L, et al: Overexpression of c-met in oral SCC promotes hepatocyte growth factor-induced disruption of cadherin junctions and invasion. Int J Oncol. 25:831–840. 2004.
22.	Han SU, Lee JH, Kim WH, Cho YK and Kim MW: Significant correlation between serum level of hepatocyte growth factor and progression of gastric carcinoma. World J Surg. 23:1176–1180. 1999.
23.	Moghul A, Lin L, Beedle A, et al: Modulation of c-MET proto-oncogene (HGF receptor) mRNA abundance by cytokines and hormones: evidence for rapid decay of the 8 kb c-MET transcript. Oncogene. 9:2045–2052. 1994.
24.	Boccaccio C, Gaudino G, Gambarotta G, Galimi F and Comoglio P: Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) receptor expression is inducible and is part of the delayed-early response to HGF. J Biol Chem. 269:12846–12851. 1994.