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Metallothionein expression in mobile tongue squamous cell carcinoma: associations with clinicopathological parameters and patient survival
Author(s) -
Theocharis Stamatios,
Klijanienko Jerzy,
Giaginis Constantinos,
Rodriguez Jose,
Jouffroy Thomas,
Girod Angelique,
Point Daniel,
Tsourouflis Gerasimos,
SastreGarau Xavier
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
histopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.626
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1365-2559
pISSN - 0309-0167
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2559.2011.03947.x
Subject(s) - tongue , pathology , immunohistochemistry , tongue neoplasm , cancer , biology , lymph node , metallothionein , cancer research , medicine , gene , biochemistry
Theocharis S, Klijanienko J, Giaginis C, Rodriguez J, Jouffroy T, Girod A, Point D, Tsourouflis G & Sastre‐Garau X
(2011) Histopathology 59 , 514–525 Metallothionein expression in mobile tongue squamous cell carcinoma: associations with clinicopathological parameters and patient survival Aims: Metallothionein (MT) has been implicated in several aspects of cancer pathobiology, such as differentiation, proliferation, apoptosis and invasion. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical significance of MT expression in mobile tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Methods and results: MT protein expression was assessed immunohistochemically on 49 mobile tongue SCC specimens, and was analysed in relation to clinicopathological characteristics, and overall and disease‐free patient survival. All of the examined mobile tongue SCC cases showed MT positivity in tumour cells; however, neither MT overexpression nor staining intensity was significantly associated with clinicopathological parameters. MT cellular distribution was significantly associated with histopathological grade of differentiation and depth of invasion ( P = 0.0188 and P = 0.0484, respectively). MT staining intensity was identified as a significant predictor of overall patient survival at both univariate ( P = 0.0377) and multivariate ( P = 0.0472) levels. Twenty‐seven (55.10%) of the examined SCC cases showed MT positivity in squamous tongue epithelium adjacent to the tumour, the MT positivity being correlated with depth of invasion ( P = 0.0281), vascular invasion ( P = 0.0194), and the existence of lymph node metastases ( P = 0.0194). Conclusions: MT may be implicated in the development and progression of mobile tongue SCC and could be considered as a useful clinical marker for patient management and prognosis.