Loss of E-cadherin and p27 expression is associated with head and neck squamous tumorigenesis

BACKGROUND. In neoplastic head and neck lesions, it has been found that the loss or reduction in E-cadherin expression is a late event and is associated with invasion. Low p27 levels have been associated with a poor prognosis in many different tumors, including laryngeal carcinoma. The authors investigated p27 and E-cadherin protein expression in the early stages of head and neck tumorigenesis and evaluated their predictive roles individually and in association with carcinogenesis. METHODS. Tissue biopsies from 46 patients who were participants in 3 chemoprevention trials were analyzed for E-cadherin expression, and 40 samples were analyzed for p27 expression using immunohistochemistry. RESULTS. The data suggested that loss of both E-cadherin expression and p27 expression occurred early during the preneoplastic steps of head and neck carcinogenesis, and loss of p27 protein expression alone (P = 0.02) and in combination with loss of E-cadherin expression (P = 0.04) was a significant predictor of the risk for head and neck carcinoma. CONCLUSIONS. The loss of p27 expression may be useful in the construction of a risk model for head and neck carcinogenesis and may represent a potential target for chemopreventive interventions. Longer follow-up of the high percentage of low-risk preneoplastic lesions in the current study and validation in a larger sample size may be required to establish the predictive role of these abnormalities.