Reduced gamma-catenin expression and poor survival in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether reduced expression of alpha-, beta-, or gamma-catenin predicts poor survival in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). DESIGN: Immunohistochemical analyses of a retrospective cohort. SETTING: University-affiliated hospital. PATIENTS: One hundred twenty-four patients with OSCC. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The prognostic value of gamma-catenin expression on disease-specific survival in different T and N category groups in patients with OSCC. RESULTS: Reduced expression of gamma-catenin correlated with poor tumor differentiation of OSCC (P = .04). Patients with reduced gamma-catenin expression in the primary tumor had significantly more frequent lymph node metastasis than did patients with normal gamma-catenin expression (P = . 03). Reduced expression of gamma-catenin (004) but not of alpha-catenin (P = .25) or beta-catenin (P = .48) correlated with poor clinical outcome. Reduced gamma-catenin expression predicted poor disease-specific survival also in the 92 patients with T1 or T2 tumors (P = . 02). In multivariate analysis, advanced T category (P = . 04), neck lymph node metastases (P = . 01), and reduced gamma-catenin expression (P = . 05) were independently related to poor survival. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced expression of gamma-catenin was associated with poor differentiation of OSCC, with neck lymph node metastases, and, more importantly, with poor disease-specific survival. Loss of gamma-catenin expression seems to contribute to metastatic properties of OSCC. Evaluation of the expression pattern of gamma-catenin may be useful for predicting outcome in patients with OSCC.