Expression of CD39 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tissues and its prognostic value / 中国肿瘤生物治疗杂志

ABSTRACT

@#[Abstract] Objective: To detect the expression of CD39 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) tisseus, and to analyze its correlation with patients’clinicopathological features and its prognostic significance. Methods: Tissue specimens and case data of 85 patients with HNSCC underwent surgery at Cancer Hospital of Tianjin from May 2012 to December 2013 were collected for this study. Gene chips were obtained from Oncomine database, and HNSCC cell lines SCC15, UM1, and Cal25 were selected for this study. Online analysis was performed to compare the differential expression of CD39 in buccal mucosa (BM) tissues and HNSCC tissues, Western blotting and Immunohistochemistry (IHC) were used to detect the protein expression of CD39 in HNSCC tissues. Spearman’ s correlation analysis was used to study the correlation between the expressions of CD39 and clinicopathological features of HNSCC patients. Both Kaplan-Meier curve analysis and Log rank test were used to analyze the association between the expression of CD39 in HNSCC tissues and the survival of patients, and Cox risk proportional regression model was used to evaluate the relationship between CD39 expression and the risk of relapse. Results: The transcription level of CD39 was obviously up-regulated in HNSCC tissues than in BM tissues (P<0.01), and CD39 expression was detected in HNSCC cell lines SCC15, UM1 and Cal25. Dexamethasone (DXM) could enhance the expression of CD39 in UM1 cells in dose-dependent manner. CD39 was highly expressed in 53 (62.4%) HNSCC patients, which was positively correlated with preoperative chemotherapy (r=0.234, P<0.05). The recurrence-free survival (RFS) of patients with high CD39 expression was significantly shortened (P<0.05), and high CD39 expression was an independent relapse risk factor (HR=2.328, 95%CI=1.091-4.967; P<0.05) for patients with HNSCC. Conclusion: CD39 is DXM-inducively and constitutively expressed in HNSCC. And over-expression of CD39 is an independent predictor of poor prognosis in HNSCC patients, indicating its important role in the progression of HNSCC.