A comparative study of the clinicopathological significance of E-cadherin and catenins (alpha,beta,gamma) expression in the surgical management of oral tongue carcinoma
V. Chow et al., A comparative study of the clinicopathological significance of E-cadherin and catenins (alpha,beta,gamma) expression in the surgical management of oral tongue carcinoma, J CANC RES, 127(1), 2001, pp. 59-63
Purpose: E-cadherin and cadherins are important epithelial adhesion molecul
es in normal epithelium. Loss of E-cadherin-catenin adhesion is an importan
t step in the progression of many epithelial cancers. E-cadherin and cateni
ns expression in carcinoma of the tongue were evaluated in relation to thei
r clinicopathological features and prognostic values, Method: Immunohistoch
emical staining was carried out with E-cadherin and (alpha, beta, gamma)-ca
tenin monoclonal antibodies for 85 surgical specimens of oral tongue carcin
oma, nine matched metastatic lymph nodes, and seven locally recurrent rumou
rs. Results: There was under-expression in 85% of E-cadherin, 94% of alpha
-catenin, 89% of beta -catenin, and 83% of gamma -catenin in the primary tu
mours. There was no correlation of E-cadherin/catenin expression with sex,
age, cancer stage, and differentiation. Nodal metastasis was found in 68% o
f patients with weak expression of gamma -catenin compared with 9% with str
ong expression in primary tumours (chi-square, P = 0.02). E-cadherin was a
significant prognostic factor for survival and recurrence; patients with we
ak E-cadherin expression had 53% 5-year survival compared with 85% with str
ong expression (Wilcoxon, P = 0.0159). Conclusions: Both E-cadherin and cat
enins were highly under-expressed in oral tongue carcinoma, metastatic lymp
h node, and recurrent tumour. gamma -catenin had predictive value for nodal
metastasis. E-cadherin was, however, a more important prognostic factor fo
r recurrence and survival.