Loss of E-cadherin and p27 expression is associated with head and neck squarnous tumorigenesis

BACKGROUND. in neoplastic head and neck lesions, it has been found that the loss or reduction in E-cadherin expression is a late event and is associated with invasion. Low p27 levels have been associated with a poor prognosis ill many different tumors, including laryngeal carcinoma. The authors investigated p27 and E-cadherin protein expression in the early stages of head and neck tumorigenesis and evaluated their predictive roles individually and in association with carcillo-genesis. METHODS. Tissue biopsies from 46 patients who were participants in 3 chemoprevention trials were analyzed for E-cadherin expression, and 40 samples were analyzed for p27 expression using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS. The data suggested that loss of both F-cadherin expression and p27 expression Occurred early during the preneoplastic steps of head and neck carcinogenesis, and loss of p27 protein expression alone (P = 0.02) and in combination with loss of E-cadherin expression (P = 0.04) was a significant predictor of the risk for head and neck carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS. The loss of p27 expression may be useful in the construction of a risk model for head and neck carcinogenesis and may represent a potential target for chemopreventive interventions. Longer follow-up of the high percentage of low-risk preneoplastic lesions in the current study and validation in a larger sample size may be required to establish the predictive role of these abnormalities. (C) 2005 American Cancer Society.