MAGE-A11 Expression Predicts Patient Prognosis in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Shiheng Jia; Minghui Zhang; Yanshu Li; Lan Zhang; Wei Dai

doi:10.2147/CMAR.S237867

MAGE-A11 Expression Predicts Patient Prognosis in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Cancer Manag Res. 2020 Feb 26:12:1427-1435. doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S237867. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Shiheng Jia^{1

2

3

4}, Minghui Zhang^{1

2

3

4}, Yanshu Li^{1

2

3}, Lan Zhang⁵, Wei Dai⁵

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, Ministry of Public Health, China Medical University, Liaoning, Shenyang 110122, People's Republic of China.
² Key Laboratory of Medical Cell Biology, Ministry of Education, China Medical University, Liaoning, Shenyang 110122, People's Republic of China.
³ Department of Cell Biology, China Medical University, Liaoning, Shenyang 110122, People's Republic of China.
⁴ Department of Clinical Medicine, China Medical University, Liaoning, Shenyang 110122, People's Republic of China.
⁵ Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School and Hospital of Stomatology, China Medical University, Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Liaoning, Shenyang 110002, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Background: Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are the sixth most common cancer worldwide. Growing evidence showed that Melanoma-associated antigen-A11 (MAGE-A11) was abnormally expressed in various malignancies, but MAGE-A11 expression and its biological roles in HNSCC had not been reported in detail. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between MAGE-A11 signatures and clinicopathological features of HNSCC patients and uncover its potential mechanisms in HNSCC patients.

Methods: In the present study, we analyzed the expression of MAGE-A11 gene and evaluated the impact of MAGE-A11 genes expression on clinical outcome from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. MAGE-A11 expression was assessed in a well-characterized series of HNSCC (N = 75) with long-term follow-up and 10 cases of adjacent non-cancerous tissues, which were diagnosed between 2013 and 2014, by using immunohistochemistry. The correlation between MAGE-A11 expression and clinicopathological factors was analyzed. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used to assess the prognostic significance of MAGE-A11 expression among HNSCC patients.

Results: The results showed that MAGE-A11 mRNA expression was increased in HNSCC tissues compared to "normal" tissues (P < 10^-12). MAGE-A11 protein expression was not correlated with lymph node status, relapse, age, gender, histological grade, differentiation, clinical stage, tumor size, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The patients with high MAGE-A11 expression had lower 5-year overall survival (OS) rates than those with low MAGE-A11 expression as determined using the Kaplan-Meier method. The univariate and multivariate analyses confirmed that elevated MAGE-A11 was an independent prognostic factor for the OS of HNSCC patients.

Conclusion: These findings indicate that MAGE-A11 may be a valuable diagnostic or prognostic marker as well as a potential molecular therapy target for HNSCC patients.

Keywords: Melanoma-associated antigen-A11; head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; immunohistochemistry; prognosis.