Abstract:

Objective    To investigate expressions of nuclear EGFR and Aurora-A kinase in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, and to explore their associations with the clinicopathological feathers. Methods    Expressions of nuclear EGFR and Aurora-A kinase were analyzed in 50 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma samples and 10 normal tissues adjacent to the carcinomas by immunohistochemistry. Results    Nuclear EGFR and Aurora-A kinase were up-regulated in most laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma samples but not in normal tissues. The difference of weighted scores between these two groups was significant(P<0.05).  Although there were no correlations between expression of nuclear EGFR and some tumor parameters, such as age, gender, tumor site, expression of nuclear EGFR was significantly associated with tumor T staging(P<0.05), lymph node metastasis(P<0.05) and relapse(P<0.05). There were no correlations between expression of Aurora-A kinase and some tumor parameters, such as age, gender, tumor site, relapse (P>0.05), while expressions of Aurora-A kinase was significantly associated with T staging (P<0.05), lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). In laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma tissues, there were positive correlation between expressions of nuclear EGFR and Aurora-A kinase (P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed the 3, 5year survival rates of high nuclear EGFR and Aurora-A kinase were significantly lower than in the contrary groups(84.0%, P=0.020; 67.8%, P=0.006, respectively). Log-rank test demonstrated that patients with high tumor T staging, lymph node metastasis, and expressions of nuclear EGFR and Aurora-A kinase had a poor outcome (P<0.05). While Cox multiple factors analysis showed that tumor T staging, lymph node metastasis and nuclear EGFR were independent prognostic factors of laryngeal squamous cell cancer(P=0.045, 0.018, 0.088, respectively). Conclusion    Nuclear EGFR and Aurora-A kinase are associated with biological behaviors and prognosis of laryngeal squmous cell cancer.

Key words: Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma; Nuclear EGFR; AuroraA kinase