Expression of E-cadherin/catenin complex in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Correlation with clinicopathological parameters

The E-cadherin/catenin complex plays an essential role in maintaining intim ate intercellular associations and is considered to be involved in tumor me tastasis and suppressing invasion by cancer cells. We have analyzed the exp ression of E-cadherin/catenin complex in a series of nasopharyngeal carcino ma (NPC) specimens using immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting. Data are correlated with the patients' clinico-pathological parameters, including th e clinical stage, presence of intracranial invasion, presence of lymph node or distant metastasis, and histological grading. The E-cadherin/catenin co mplex is down-expressed in most of the samples examined. Correlation with c linicopathological parameters shows that expression of alpha- and beta-cate nin is associated with the occurrence of intracranial invasion.