E-CADHERIN EXPRESSION IN HEAD AND NECK SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMA IS ASSOCIATED WITH CLINICAL OUTCOME

The cell-cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin has been shown to suppress invasive growth of epithelial cells in vitro, and loss of its expressi on is thought to be important in invasion and metastatic potential of epithelial tumors in vivo. We retrospectively studied the level of E-c adherin expression in 50 primary head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma s (HNSCC) by immunohistochemical methods, on frozen sections, using an ti-E-cadherin monoclonal antibody (MAb) 6F9. It concerned patients wit h different stages of carcinoma of larynx or oral cavity who had been treated with curative intention 30 months or more before. Percentages of membranous stained tumor cells were scored in 1 of 5 categories. Sc ores were generally low, as in 11/50 lesions less-than-or-equal-to 5% cells were stained, and in 19/50 lesions only 6-25% cells showed membr anous staining. In 9 lymph-node metastases evaluated, E-cadherin expre ssion was in the same range as in the primary tumors. There was a sign ificant correlation between the level of membranous E-cadherin express ion in the primary tumor and the degree of differentiation. No relatio n was found with tumor size (pT) or regional lymph-node classification (pN). Nevertheless, 29 patients surviving greater-than-or-equal-to 30 months without evidence of disease had significantly higher levels of membranous E-cadherin expression in their primary tumors than 10 pati ents with unfavorable clinical course clearly related to recurrent and /or metastatic HNSCC. Moreover, this could only partially be explained by distinctions in differentiation grade between both groups. Our res ults suggest that membranous E-cadherin expression has prognostic impo rtance in patients with HNSCC. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.