ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: We investigated the expression of glucose uptake transporter-1 (GLUT-1) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in the head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) and their influence on survival rate. We also aimed to demonstrate the relationships between the expressions of GLUT-1 and EGFR and the maximal standardized uptake values (mSUV) of fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Surgical specimens from 50 patients with HNSCC, who had undergone surgical intervention, were first processed for tissue array and then for immunochemistry for GLUT-1 and EGFR. Expressions of GLUT-1 and EGFR were analyzed according to the differentiation of tumor, T & N stage and invasiveness of the tumor etc. The relationship between PET-mSUV and the expressions of EGFR and GLUT-1 was evaluated as well as its possibility as a prognostic factor of SUV. RESULTS: The expression of EGFR was significantly high in the lymph node of the positive group. Associated with the expression of GLUT-1, a tendency of increased index score (IS) values in the advanced T stages was observed but it was not statistically significant. The mSUV in FDG-PET showed statistically significant association with the maximal tumor size (pearson correlation 0.569, p=0.023); however, no association with GLUT-1 and EGFR was observed. A universal strong expression of GLUT-1 could have made it difficult to figure out statistically significant correlations. Disease free survival was to be influenced by T stage, moderate and poor differentiation and GLUT-1 expression. Only the T stages had independent significance in the multivariate analysis using the Cox regression model. CONCLUSION: We found that the expression of GLUT-1 could not show statistically significant correlation with PET-mSUV. Since the expression of EGFR has significant correlation with lymph node metastasis, EGFR may have the possibility of being a target for anticancer molecular therapy.