Objective: To investigate the expression of E-cadherin (ECD) and uPA in laryngeal cancer and evaluate their clinical value in prognosis.
Methods: ECD and uPA were determined by immunohistochemistry of Envision methods in carcinoma tissues of 51 patients of laryngeal carcinoma. All patients were followed and the prognostic factors were analyzed.
Results: Among 51 patients' tumor tissues, 24 (47.1%) were negative expression of ECD, and 26 (51.0%) were positive uPA immunoreaction was observed. There were four subgroups of patterns of ECD and uPA expression: 14 (27.1%) ECD-positive/uPA-negative, 13 (25.5%) ECD-negative/uPA-negative, 11 (21.6%) ECD-positive/uPA-positive, and 13 (25.5%) ECD-negative/uPA-positive. The tumor tissues with ECD-negative and uPA-positive expression were significant associated with lymph nodes metastasis (chi(2) = 5.545, 5.79, P = 0.019, 0.016 respectively). Patients with ECD-negative expression had a shorter survival than the patients with ECD positive expression but no statistic difference (chi(2) = 2.534, P > 0.05). Patients with uPA-positive expression had a significantly shorter survival time than those with uPA-negative expression (chi(2) = 6.259, P < 0.05). There was a difference for the median survival time between the patients with uPA-negative/ECD-positive and the patients with uPA-positive/ECD-negative in laryngeal cancer tissue (chi(2) = 6.559, P = 0.01), and the survival curves between these two groups was also statistically significant difference. Multivariate analysis of Cox revealed that clinical stage and ECD/uPA (P = 0.009, 0.007 respectively) were two independent prognostic factors.
Conclusions: The combination analysis of uPA and ECD immunohistochemical expression in the laryngeal cancer tissue may be useful for predicting tumor metastatic risks and patient's prognosis.