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Bcl‐xL protein: Predictor of complete tumor response in patients with oral cancer treated with curative radiotherapy
Author(s) -
Mallick Sanchita,
Agarwal Jaiprakash,
Kannan Sadhana,
Pawar Sagar,
Kane Shubhada,
Teni Tanuja
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.23153
Subject(s) - radiation therapy , medicine , oncology , multivariate analysis , univariate analysis , immunohistochemistry , head and neck cancer , cancer
Background We earlier observed altered expression of p53 and Bcl‐xL in oral cancer cell lines/tissues and wanted to evaluate these proteins for prediction of radiotherapy response and outcome. Methods Thirty‐nine paraffin‐embedded, pretreatment oral cancer biopsies were analyzed for protein expression using immunohistochemistry and correlated with tumor response to radiotherapy and disease‐free survival (DFS). Result High p53 ( p = .040) was observed in female versus male patients. Increased p53 intensity ( p = .063) was observed in tobacco habitués (chewers ± smokers) versus patients with no habits. In univariate analysis, nodal positivity ( p = .044) and favorable/complete tumor response ( p = .002) exhibited a significant correlation with DFS, whereas tumor response emerged as an independent predictor of DFS in multivariate analysis. Significantly high Bcl‐xL ( p = .048) was observed in the unfavorable versus favorable responders. Conclusion Our study suggests that Bcl‐xL expression along with clinical parameters may be useful for identifying patients with oral cancer likely to draw maximum benefit from curative radiotherapy. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 35: 1448–1453, 2013