Nuclear expression of N-cadherin correlates with poor prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

作者：Luo, Wei-Ren; Wu, Ai-Bing; Fang, Wei-Yi; Li, Si-Yi; Yao, Kai-Tai^*

来源：Histopathology, 2012, 61(2): 237-246.

DOI：10.1111/j.1365-2559.2012.04212.x

• EMT
• nasopharyngeal carcinoma
• N-cadherin
• prognosis

Luo W-R, Wu A-B, Fang W-Y, Li S-Y & Yao K-T (2012) Histopathology similar to 61, 237246 Nuclear expression of N-cadherin correlates with poor prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma Aims: To investigate the aberrant expression of N-cadherin in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and its prognostic significance. Methods and results: Immunohistochemical staining for N-cadherin protein was performed on tissue microarray (TMA) from 122 NPC patients. Cytoplasmic N-cadherin was observed in 42.6% and nuclear N-cadherin in 45.1% of NPC tissues. High expression of cytoplasmic and nuclear N-cadherin was associated with a majority of the clinicopathological variables, including lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis and clinical stage. Cytoplasmic N-cadherin was associated positively with nuclear N-cadherin expression (P = 0.000). In univariate analysis, cytoplasmic N-cadherin showed no significant impact on patient prognosis. In contrast, the overall survival was significantly shorter in patients with high nuclear N-cadherin than those with low levels of staining (P = 0.002). A high expression of nuclear N-cadherin predicted poorer survival in patients with late stage disease (P = 0.033), but not those with early tumour stage. In addition, multivariate analysis showed nuclear N-cadherin to bean independent prognostic marker for NPC patients (P = 0.024). Conclusions: Nuclear N-cadherin expression may represent a valuable prognostic marker in NPC patients, especially those with late stage disease.

• 出版日期2012-8
• 单位广东医科大学; 南方医科大学