Expression of Maspin in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

Squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) of the head and neck are malignant tumors with their ability to invade and metastasis, which can affect the prognosis. The molecular pathogenesis of SCC of the head and neck is still not clear. Further understanding of the molecular alteration in SCC of the head and neck will be enable to provide more accurate and useful prognostic markers and more effective treatments. Maspin, a member of the serpin family of protease inhibitors, is known to have tumor-suppressor functions. However, association between its expression level and survival has not been demonstrated in Head and Neck cancer. Using the immunohistochemical technique to examine the expression levels of maspin in 30 cases of SCC in head and neck, the results showed that 73.3% of the cases expressed low to intermediate levels of maspin and 26.6% of the cases expressed high levels of maspin. The clinicopathological features of the SCC cases were also compared with the maspin expression level, and the results were that high maspin expression was significantly associated with the absence of lymph node metastasis. More importantly, higher maspin expression was significantly associated with better results of disease free survival time period, so it is suggested that high maspin expression may be a favorable prognostic marker for SCC of the head and neck.