Premium
Gene expression profile changes and possible molecular subtypes in differentiated‐type nonkeratinizing nasopharyngeal carcinoma
Author(s) -
Wang Shuang,
Li Xin,
Li ZuGuo,
Lu Juan,
Fang WeiYi,
Ding YanQing,
Yao KaiTai
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.25392
Subject(s) - nasopharyngeal carcinoma , biology , gene expression , immunohistochemistry , microarray , gene , oncology , carcinoma , pathology , gene expression profiling , cancer research , medicine , genetics , radiation therapy
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a human malignant tumor with a high incidence and a poor prognosis in Southern China and South‐eastern Asia. In this study, we comprehensively analyzed the gene expression profiles in 24 samples of primary differentiated‐type nonkeratining NPC (DNK‐NPC) tissues, 24 samples of normal nasopharyngeal tissues and 4 DNK‐NPC cell lines using cDNA microarray technology and bioinformatics methods. We found expression level of some genes was wildly alerted in the DNK‐NPC samples. In addition, our hierarchical clustering analysis revealed 2 distinctive subtypes of gene expression patterns in DNK‐NPC tissue samples. The discriminator genes were identified using a signal‐to‐noise (S 2 N) algorithm by permuting of the data set 10,000 times. To further characterize the clinical relevance of the tumor subtypes, we evaluated a surrogate marker, CCND2, differentially expressed between the 2 tumor subgroups by using immunohistochemistry in an independent set of 137 DNK‐NPC samples. CCND2 was highly expressed in the subgroups with “aggressive” features and was associated with T classification ( p = 0.006) and clinical stage ( p = 0.013). Patients with high level of CCND2 expression had poorer overall survival than those with low level ( p = 0.034). Our results suggest that DNK‐NPC can be classified into 2 subtypes based on gene expression patterns, which can be used in determining prognosis and treatment of the tumor.