First ENT Department, Hippocration Hospital, University of Athens, Athens, Greece.
ENT Department, Medical School, University of Patras, Patras, Greece.
In Vivo. 2022 May-Jun;36(3):1144-1149. doi: 10.21873/invivo.12813.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is characterized by a broad spectrum of genomic imbalances, including gross chromosomal (polysomy/aneuploidy) ones as well as specific gene alterations. Aberrant expression of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) seems to be a useful molecular marker for discriminating patients based on genetic signatures in a variety of solid malignancies, such as lung carcinoma. Our aim was to analyze ALK protein expression patterns in a series of OSCCs.
Fifty (n=50) OSCC tissue sections were analyzed by implementing an ALK-based immunohistochemistry protocol. Digital image analysis was performed for measuring the corresponding protein expression levels.
ALK overexpression was observed in 14/50 (28%) OSCC tissue sections, whereas the rest 36/50 (72%) demonstrated low expression levels. ALK expression was negatively associated with grade (p=0.027) and stage (p=0.0028) of the examined cases.
Abnormal ALK expression in subsets of patients with OSCC seems to be related to an aggressive phenotype (advanced stage/progressive dedifferentiation). ALK protein overexpression may be used as a significant marker for applying targeted therapeutic regimens.
口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）的特征是广泛的基因组失衡，包括染色体数量（多倍体/非整倍体）的巨大变化以及特定基因的改变。间变性淋巴瘤激酶（ALK）的异常表达似乎是区分不同遗传特征的肺癌等各种实体恶性肿瘤患者的有用分子标志物。我们的目的是分析一系列 OSCC 中 ALK 蛋白的表达模式。
采用基于 ALK 的免疫组织化学方案分析了 50 个（n=50）OSCC 组织切片。进行数字图像分析以测量相应的蛋白表达水平。
在 50 个 OSCC 组织切片中，有 14/50（28%）观察到 ALK 过表达，而其余 36/50（72%）显示低表达水平。ALK 表达与所检查病例的分级（p=0.027）和分期（p=0.0028）呈负相关。
在 OSCC 的亚组患者中，异常的 ALK 表达似乎与侵袭性表型（晚期/进行性去分化）有关。ALK 蛋白过表达可能被用作应用靶向治疗方案的重要标志物。
