Prognostic Significance of Cyclin D1 and E-cadherin Expression in Laryngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Cyclin D1 and E-cadherin are important factors in the progression and metastasis of cancers. Their role in laryngeal carcinoma has been studied with conflicting results. To define the frequency of cyclin D1 and E-cadherin expression and its correlation with both the clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). Tumor tissue samples from 75 patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma were examined for cyclin D1 and E-cadherin expression by immunohistochemistry. The relationship between the expression of both molecules and the age and sex of the patient, tumor site, tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, tumor invasiveness, TNM stages, tumor recurrence and overall survival was analyzed. Cyclin D1 was found to be a significant independent prognostic factor of lymph node metastasis (p = 0.000). The multivariate analysis revealed that cyclin D1 and E-cadherin expression wasn't an independent prognostic factor of local recurrence free survival (LRFS) in patients with LSCC (P = 0.56 and 0.28) respectively. However, the univariate analysis revealed a significant association between them and LRFS (p = 0.003 and 0.000) respectively. Also, the group of high cyclin D1 /low E-cadherin expression had the poorest prognosis, so they might serve as potential predictors of the prognosis of the patients with LSCC. E-cadherin was found to affect the overall survival (OAS) significantly by the univariate analysis (p = 0.01). However, by the multivariate analysis the TNM stage was the only independent prognostic factor of OAS (p < 0.05). Cyclin D1 can be used as an independent prognostic marker of lymph node metastasis in patients with LSCC and can help to identify those patients with clinically negative lymph nodes but with considerable risk for occult metastasis. Detection of cyclin D1 and E-cadherin status in LSCC may contribute to the identification of patients with high risk factors of local recurrence. However, they don't appear to be better prognostic predictors than other established markers in LSCC.