Saba Nabil F, Wang Xu, Müller Susan, Tighiouart Mourad, Cho Kwangjae, Nie Shuming, Chen Zhuo, Shin Dong M
Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Head Neck. 2009 Apr;31(4):475-81. doi: 10.1002/hed.21003.
Nanotechnology-based drug delivery approaches may help increase therapeutic efficacy and decrease side effects of chemotherapeutics. We investigated expression levels of folate receptor in squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) to evaluate folate receptor as a target for nanotherapy.
Folate receptor expression levels in archival SCCHN tissues were analyzed by immunohistochemistry and correlated with clinical parameters.
Folate receptor was detected in 45% of primary tumors and 40% of corresponding lymph node metastases. Folate receptor expression in primary tumors of the metastatic group strongly correlated with the corresponding lymph node metastases (p = .0002). Folate receptor expression was inversely correlated with disease-free survival in nonmetastatic (p = .0048), metastatic (p = .0127), and lymph node metastases (p <.001) groups, and with overall survival in the lymph node metastases group (p <.0001).
Folate receptor is expressed in a significant proportion of primary SCCHN and corresponding lymph node metastases tissues, and correlates with worse clinical outcome. These findings provide support for folate receptor-mediated nanotherapeutics in SCCHN.
基于纳米技术的药物递送方法可能有助于提高化疗药物的疗效并降低其副作用。我们研究了头颈部鳞状细胞癌（SCCHN）中叶酸受体的表达水平，以评估叶酸受体作为纳米治疗靶点的可能性。
采用免疫组织化学方法分析存档的SCCHN组织中叶酸受体的表达水平，并将其与临床参数进行关联分析。
在45%的原发性肿瘤和40%的相应淋巴结转移灶中检测到叶酸受体。转移组原发性肿瘤中的叶酸受体表达与相应的淋巴结转移密切相关（p = 0.0002）。在非转移组（p = 0.0048）、转移组（p = 0.0127）和淋巴结转移组（p < 0.001）中，叶酸受体表达与无病生存期呈负相关，在淋巴结转移组中与总生存期呈负相关（p < 0.0001）。
叶酸受体在相当比例的原发性SCCHN及其相应的淋巴结转移组织中表达，且与较差的临床结局相关。这些发现为SCCHN中叶酸受体介导的纳米治疗提供了支持。
