NF‑&kappa;B (p65) protein expression in head and neck tumors and its association with clinicopathological parameters

Barnes,Precious; Mensah,Abraham; Derkyi-Kwarteng,Leonard; Adankwa,Ernest; Agbo,Elvis; Yahaya,Ewura Seidu; Amoani,Benjamin; Imbeah,Emmanuel Gustav; Adjei,George; Akakpo,Patrick Kafui; Halm-Lai,Faustina; Dankwa,Kwabena; Nuvor,Samuel Victor; Saahene,Roland Osei; Obiri-Yeboah,Dorcas

doi:10.3892/wasj.2025.330

NF‑κB (p65) protein expression in head and neck tumors and its association with clinicopathological parameters

Authors:
- Precious Barnes
- Abraham Mensah
- Leonard Derkyi-Kwarteng
- Ernest Adankwa
- Elvis Agbo
- Ewura Seidu Yahaya
- Benjamin Amoani
- Emmanuel Gustav Imbeah
- George Adjei
- Patrick Kafui Akakpo
- Faustina Halm-Lai
- Kwabena Dankwa
- Samuel Victor Nuvor
- Roland Osei Saahene
- Dorcas Obiri-Yeboah
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Affiliations: Department of Chemical Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 32440, Ghana, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 32440, Ghana, Department of Pathology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 32440, Ghana, Department of Medical Diagnostics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi 1279, Ghana, Department of Human Anatomy, Histology and Embryology, College of Medicine, Jinggangshan University, Ji'an, Jiangxi 343000, P.R. China, Department of Pharmacology, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 32440, Ghana, Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 32440, Ghana, Department of Community Medicine, School of Medical Sciences, College of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast 32440, Ghana
Published online on: February 28, 2025 https://doi.org/10.3892/wasj.2025.330
Article Number: 42
Copyright : © Barnes et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License [CC BY 4.0].

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Abstract

Head and neck tumors (HNTs) are a diverse group of tumors that develop due to a variety of genetic and environmental risk factors with varying incidence rates. Nuclear factor κB (NF‑κB), is a transcription factor that has been linked to malignant tumors and chronic inflammation. However, there is a paucity of available data globally on NF‑κB (p65) in HNTs. The present study evaluated the association between clinicopathological features of patients with HNT and NF‑κB (p65) protein expression. Immunohistochemistry was used to examine NF‑κB (p65) expression in 112 HNT tissues comprising of 62 benign and 50 malignant tumors. The Chi‑square test and Fisher's exact test were employed to analyze the associatoin between NF‑κB (p65) protein expression patterns and the clinicopathological features of the patients. NF‑κB (p65) protein was expressed in 58.9% of head and neck tumors evaluated. There was a significant association between NF‑κB (p65), sex and tumor type. There was a high NF‑κB (p65) expression in malignant tumors, with its expression in malignant tumors being 2‑fold higher than that in benign tumors. NF‑κB (p65) expression in malignant tumors was associated with the male sex and tumor node metastasis (TNM) stage. On the whole, the present study emphasizes that NF‑κB (p65) protein expression levels may indeed be controlled by sex and TNM stage, with a higher NF‑κB (p65) activity observed in male patients with HNTs. Therefore, it may be explored as a potential prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target.

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