ABSTRACT
Certain genes may be involved in suppressing metastatic or aggressive tumour behaviour, the non metastatic gene [NM 23H1] is one gene that has been showen to posses metastatic suppressing activity. The expression of NM 23 H1 gene protein was investigated in 60 patients with laryngeal lesions. The patients were divided into 2 groups:-Group [1] 40 cases with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma [21 cases of them with lymph nodes] and Group [2] 20 cases with laryngeal polyps as control group. The immunoreactivity of NM 23 H1 gene protein was assessed according to both pattern and intensity of immunostaining and the correlation of this immunoreactivity with clinicopathological parameters including grade of differentiation, incidence of Lymph node metastasis and the disease recurrence and/or distant metastasis. The immunoreactivity in the metastatic lymph nodes was investigated and ed with their primary tumours, Results of the study showed that most tumours and polyps expressed NM 23 H1 gene but high expression found in [55%] of laryngeal tumours [22 cases], while [45%] of cases [18 cases] showed reduced expression. Ten metastatic lymph nodes showed reduced expression and 1 with high expression from 11 cases of primary laryngeal tumours that had reduced expression, while 5 metastatic lymph nodes showed reduced expression and 5 showed high expression from 10 cases of primary laryngeal tumours that had high expression of NM 23 H1 gene product. Gene expression is inversely correlates with grade of differentiation. Primary tumours with high expression showed less distant metastasis whilst those with low expression reveald more aggressive behavior. From these data we concluded that the NM23 H1 gene may play a role in distant metastasis and/or disease recurrence and so could be used as a prognostic factor for metastatic in laryngeal carcinoma