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Relationship between anti‐apoptotic proteins survivin and Bcl ‐2, and response to treatment in patients undergoing post‐operative RT for laryngeal cancer: a pilot study
Author(s) -
Marioni Gino,
Staffieri Alberto,
Lionello Marco,
Tealdo Giulia,
Staffieri Claudia,
Giacomelli Luciano,
Friso Maria Luisa,
Stramare Roberto,
Ottaviano Giancarlo,
Blandamura Stella
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of oral pathology and medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.887
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1600-0714
pISSN - 0904-2512
DOI - 10.1111/jop.12020
Subject(s) - survivin , medicine , radiation therapy , immunohistochemistry , oncology , cancer , inhibitor of apoptosis , apoptosis , cancer research , pathology , programmed cell death , biology , biochemistry
Background Clinicopathological research has focused on identifying molecular and biological prognostic factors for laryngeal carcinoma ( LSCC ) treated with post‐operative radiotherapy ( RT ). The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic importance of anti‐apoptotic proteins survivin and B‐cell lymphoma‐2 ( Bcl ‐2) in a series of patients with LSCC who had primary surgery followed by RT . Methods Thirty‐three consecutive patients who underwent primary surgery followed by RT were considered. Survivin nuclear and cytoplasmic expressions and Bcl ‐2 expression were determined immunohistochemically. Results The loco‐regional recurrence rate was significantly higher among LSCC patients with a nuclear survivin expression >10.0% ( P = 0.029), and their disease‐free survival ( DFS ) was shorter than in cases whose nuclear survivin expression was ≤10.0% ( P = 0.002). DFS was significantly shorter in cases with a Bcl ‐2 expression >2.0% than in those whose Bcl ‐2 expression was ≤2.0% ( P = 0.035). Conclusions Nuclear survivin expression and Bcl ‐2 expression warrant further investigation as potential predictive biomarkers to enable individualized treatments (e.g. post‐operative chemo‐radiotherapy instead of RT alone for patients whose LSCC s strongly express nuclear survivin or/and Bcl ‐2). This preliminary evidence justifies the design of new studies on the association of agents targeting survivin and Bcl ‐2 with conventional chemotherapeutic agents and RT for advanced LSCC .