Abstract:

Objective    To evaluate the expression of caveolin-1 in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC) and investigate its association with pathological features and clinical outcome. Methods    Caveolin-1 expression was determined by immunohistochemistry using rabbit polyclonal antibody against caveolin-1 in 69 paraffin embedded primary HSCC and 10 normal hypopharyngeal mucosa specimens. Associations between caveolin-1 expression and pathological features and clinical outcomes were analyzed with a chi-square test. Results    The caveolin-1 expression in HSCC was much higher than in the normal mucosa. The positive rate of caveolin-1 was 0% in the normal mucosa but 34.78% in the primary tumors. Increased caveolin-1 expression had been reported to be associated with various pathological parameters, including higher Gleason score and lymph node metastasis. Although no significant association between caveolin-1 expression and gender or primary position was observed, caveolin1 was  distinctively increased in cases with lymph node metastases (P<0.05). Conclusion    Over-expression of Caveolin-1 could be a common finding in the aggressive types of HSCC. Caveolin-1 might play an important role in invasion and metastatic progression of HSCC.

Key words: Hypopharyngeal carcinoma; Squamous cell carcinoma; Caveolin-1