Clinicopathologic significance of laminin-5 gamma2 chain expression in squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue - immunohistochemical analysis of 67 lesions

Abstract

The laminin-5 γ2 chain plays an important role in cell migration during tumour inva-sion and tissue remodelling. Laminin-5 γ2 chain expression in squamous cell carcino-mas of the tongue in 67 patients with Stage II, III or IVA,B (excluding the cases with distant metastasis) was examined immuno-histochemically to determine its associa-tions with the clinicopathological features of each tumour. The predominant staining patterns were categorised as follows: A, few or no tumour cells were positive; B, part of the tumour nest periphery was positive; C, the tumour nest periphery was circumferentially positive; or D, almost all the tumour cells were positive. Laminin-5 γ2 chain expression was observed clearly in tumour cell cytoplasm. Of the 67 tumours examined, 6(9%), 31 (46%), 19 (28%) and 11 (17%) showed staining patterns A, B, C and D, respectively. With progression from staining pattern A to D, the number of immunopositive tumour cells increased significantly (P<0.0001), and the tumour histology showed significantly more infiltrative growth (P<0.0001) and poorer differentiation (P=0.0021). Furthermore, both univariate (P=0.0019) and multivariate (P=0.0003; hazard ratio=3.132) analyses of the patients’ survival revealed that the prognosis became significantly poorer with progression from staining pattern A to D. Increased laminin-5 γ2 chain immunore-activity, which may reflect a high invasive potential of cancer cells, is a factor indica-tive of a poor prognosis for patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. Henk Tideman