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Reduced  -Catenin Expression and Poor Survival in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Mervi Närkiö-Mäkelä, MD, PhD;
Matti Pukkila, MD, PhD;
Erja Lagerstedt, MD;
Jukka Virtaniemi, MD, PhD;
Risto Pirinen, MD, PhD;
Risto Johansson, MD, PhD;
Ari Kosunen, MD;
Katriina Lappalainen, MD, PhD;
Kirsi Hämäläinen, MD, PhD;
Veli-Matti Kosma, MD, PhD
Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2009;135(10):1035-1040.
Objective To investigate whether reduced expression of  -, β-, or  -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 -catenin expression on disease-specific survival in different T and N category groups in patients with OSCC.
Results Reduced expression of -catenin correlated with poor tumor differentiation of OSCC (P = .04). Patients with reduced -catenin expression in the primary tumor had significantly more frequent lymph node metastasis than did patients with normal -catenin expression (P = . 03). Reduced expression of -catenin (004) but not of -catenin (P = .25) or β-catenin (P = .48) correlated with poor clinical outcome. Reduced -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 -catenin expression (P = . 05) were independently related to poor survival.
Conclusions Reduced expression of -catenin was associated with poor differentiation of OSCC, with neck lymph node metastases, and, more importantly, with poor disease-specific survival. Loss of -catenin expression seems to contribute to metastatic properties of OSCC. Evaluation of the expression pattern of -catenin may be useful for predicting outcome in patients with OSCC.
Author Affiliations: Departments of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (Drs Närkiö-Mäkelä, Pukkila, Virtaniemi, and Kosunen), Clinical Pathology (Drs Pirinen, Lappalainen, Hämäläinen, and Kosma), and Oncology (Dr Johansson), Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland; Institute of Clinical Medicine, Pathology, and Forensic Medicine, University of Kuopio (Drs Närkiö-Mäkelä, Pirinen, Lappalainen, Hämäläinen, and Kosma); Medical School of Tampere University and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland (Dr Lagerstedt); and Medical Center Mehiläinen Kuopio (Dr Kosunen).
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