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Prognostic Prediction of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma by E-Cadherin and N-Cadherin Expression in Overall Cells in Tumor Nests or Tumor Cells at the Invasive Front

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Cancer Microenvironment

Abstract

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a significant process in the invasion and metastasis of cancers including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and the cadherin switch has been identified as one of the hallmarks of EMT. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the significance of the cadherin switch in the prognosis of OSCC and generate a model for prognostic predictions. Seventy-six biopsy and/or initial surgical specimens from OSCC patients were immunohistochemically analyzed for the expression of E-cadherin and N-cadherin in either overall OSCC cells in tumor nests or in OSCC cells at the invasive front. Among 76 OSCC cases, overall OSCC cells in tumor nests were negative for the expression of E-cadherin in 10 cases and positive for that of N-cadherin in 53 cases. Among 10 cases negative for the expression of E-cadherin, 4 cases were positive for that of N-cadherin. In OSCC cells at the invasive front, the expression of E-cadherin was negative in 62 cases, while that of N-cadherin was positive in 39 cases. Among 62 cases negative for the expression of E-cadherin, 33 cases were positive for that of N-cadherin. A logistic regression analysis showed that a model using the evaluation of N-cadherin expression in overall OSCC cells in tumor nests with a cut-off point of 70 years old was the best fit model. These results suggest that N-cadherin has significant value in prognostic predictions for OSCC patients.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Tohru Ikeda

    Present address: Department of Oral Pathology, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8549, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral Pathology and Bone Metabolism, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-5-8 Sakamoto, Nagasaki, Japan

    Yuu Ozaki-Honda, Sachiko Seki, Shuichi Fujita & Tohru Ikeda

  2. Department of Clinical Physiology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan

    Yuu Ozaki-Honda & Takao Ayuse

  3. Department of Clinical Pathology, Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan

    Mutsunori Fujiwara

  4. Bioinformatics Group, Genome Center, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research, Japan, and Graduate School of Public Health, Teikyo University, Tokyo, Japan

    Masaaki Matsuura

  5. Department of Regenerative Oral Surgery, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan

    Hisazumi Ikeda

  6. Department of Clinical Oral Oncology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki, Japan

    Masahiro Umeda

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  1. Yuu Ozaki-Honda
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Correspondence to Tohru Ikeda.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no potential conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee, and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its latter amendments or comparable ethical standards. Nagasaki University Hospital Ethics Committee Approval No.: 17,022,746.

Informed Consent

Written informed consent was not used and information regarding this study was disclosed on the website of Nagasaki University Clinical Research Center and assured the right for refusal to use samples and clinical information. Some of the subjects were already passed away and refusal by the proxy of the subject was also permitted.

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Ozaki-Honda, Y., Seki, S., Fujiwara, M. et al. Prognostic Prediction of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma by E-Cadherin and N-Cadherin Expression in Overall Cells in Tumor Nests or Tumor Cells at the Invasive Front. Cancer Microenvironment 10, 87–94 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12307-017-0201-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12307-017-0201-1

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