Proteomic analysis of hypopharyngeal and laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma sheds light on differences in survival

The link between differences in molecular expression and survival among advanced laryngeal (LSCC) and hypopharyngeal squamous carcinoma (HPSCC) remains unclear. Here, we applied the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program, Isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) with Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) proteomics data and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) related data to discover the possible disparities between HPSCC and LSCC. Our results showed a significantly worse 5-year overall-survival in HPSCC compared with LSCC before and after adjusting for clinical parameters. 240 differentially expressed proteins were enriched in molecular networks of cytoskeleton remodeling and antigen presentation. Moreover, HPSCC consisted of less T-central-memory cells, T-follicular-helper cells, TGF-beta response, and CD4(+) T memory resting cells, but more wound healing than LSCC. Furthermore, 9 mRNAs expression were significantly and independently correlated to overall survival in 126 HPSCC and LSCC patients, which was further validated in another cohort of head and neck cancers. These findings support that Immunity signatures as well as pathway networks that include cytoskeleton remodeling and antigen presentation may contribute to the observed differences in survival between HPSCC and LSCC.