Background: Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), being an aggressive malignancy, is one of the most commonly diagnosed malignant types of head and neck SCC worldwide. The recent studies suggested that αB-crystallin might play an important role in tumorigenesis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the αB-crystallin expression level in metastatic and nonmetastatic laryngeal SCC tissues and to determine its prognostic significance.
Methods: Alpha-B-crystallin expression status in metastatic, nonmetastatic laryngeal SCC, and normal tissue samples was investigated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).
Results: We demonstrated that the expression of αB-crystallin was significantly upregulated in laryngeal SCC tumor tissue samples in comparison with the corresponding normal tissues (p < .001), although no significant association has been found between αB-crystallin expression and either the metastatic potential or the T classification of the specimens.
Conclusion: Although expression of αB-crystallin is not statistically correlated with neck metastases, we demonstrated that αB-crystallin is significantly overexpressed in laryngeal cancer.
Keywords: laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma; lymph node; metastasis; quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR); αB-crystallin.
© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.