Laminin-5 as a predictor of invasiveness in cancer in situ lesions of the larynx.

Squamous epithelial cancer in situ (CIS) of the upper aerodigestive tract is a histopathologically well-defined condition. There is yet no reliable way to predict whether a CIS lesion will progress to invasive cancer, remain stable or regress. In the search for markers able to foretell clinical outcome, we performed immunohistochemical staining with a polyclonal antibody against recombinant gamma 2 chain of laminin-5 in 33 laryngeal CIS lesions. All six CIS lesions which progressed to invasive cancer, within a follow-up time of 5 years, were laminin-5 positive (100%), whereas only 10 out of 27 lesions which did not progress were positive (37%) (p < 0.01). Our data showed that a positive laminin-5 laryngeal CIS lesion indicates a high risk for progression to invasive cancer.