Abstract:
Objective This study aimed to analyze the correlation of the expression of CXCR4, CD44, and CD133 proteins with the clinicopathological characteristics of patients to identify the factors affecting the post-operation survival rate of tongue squamous cell carcinomas (TSCCs).
Methods Clinical data of 44 patients with TSCCs were collected and retrospectively analyzed. The diagnoses of all cases were pathologically confirmed. CXCR4, CD44, and CD133 expression in 44 TSCCs patients with different pathologicalgrades was examined immunohistochemically. Survival curves were processed in accordance with the Kaplan-Meier method. The Coxregression model was used for the multivariate analysis of relevant clinical and survival data
Results Among the 44 examined TSCCspatients, 29 cases were well differentiated and 15 were moderately or poor differentiated; 11 cases were stage Ⅰ, 12 were stage Ⅱ, 8were stage Ⅲ, and 13 were stage Ⅳ. Positive staining of CXCR4, CD44, and CD133 was found in all cases with different degrees. According to the pathological tumor grade, the positive rates of CXCR4, CD44, and CD133 expression were 79.54% (35/44 cases)77.27% (34/44 cases), and 75.00% (33/44 cases), respectively. Expression of CXCR4, CD44, and CD133 significantly differed betweendifferent histological grades (P<0.05). Correlation analysis indicated that the expression of CXCR4, CD44, and CD133 was positivelycorrelated with the metastasis, recurrence of TSCCs. COX multivariate analysis indicated that CXCR4 expression, clinical stage, andneck metastasis were independent prognostic predictors of TSCCs patients and risk factors of death.
Conclusion CXCR4, CD44, andCD133 may be correlated with the malignancy of TSCCs. CXCR4 expression, clinical stage, cervical lymph node metastasis were the correlated prognosis factors of TSCC patients after operation.