Significant correlation of EGFR Overexpression with clinicopathological features as a biomarker for Head andneck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) Patients

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth most common cancerworldwide. Different factors can cause HNSCC including tobacco smoking, alcoholconsumption, mutations in growth factor or receptor tyrosine kinase genes. Overexpression oftyrosine kinase receptors, deletion and changes within the chromosome or genomesequence is associated with hyperplastic lesion and recurrent in HNSCC. Overexpression ofreceptor tyrosine kinases genes and related transcription factor have important role in cellsignaling pathways and tumorigenesis. Our aim in this study was to analysis of epidermalgrowth factor receptor (EGFR) mRNA expression in HNSCC and assess its correlation withclinicopathological features of the patients. Normal and tumor tissues from 55 HNSCCpatients were enrolled in this study. After RNA isolation and cDNA synthesis, expression ofthe gene was analyzed using real time PCR.The mRNA expression of EGFR, was upregulated in HNSCC tissues compared with their margin normal tissues. Overexpression ofEGFR was observed in 23 of 55 (41.8 %) cases. There was significant correlation betweenmRNA expression and clinicopathological features. Overexpression of EGFR wassignificantly correlated with Lymph node metastasis (39.13%, P=0.029) and patients’Weight loss (56.52%, P=0.025). Based on these results and due to correlation of EGFRexpression with clinical features, the expression pattern of this gene may be considered as abiomarker for HNSCC progression and development. Furthermore, it may be goodtherapeutic target for cancer therapy of HNSCC

کلیدواژه ها:

Receptor Tyrosine Kinase ، EGFR ، Epidermal growth factor receptor ، Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma ، HNSCC ، biomarker ، overexpression