Molecular and clinicopathologic comparisons of head and neck squamous carcinoma variants: Common and distinctive features of biological significance

To investigate, for the first time, the events associated with the phenotypic and clinical diversities of head and neck squamous carcinomas (HNSC), we performed molecular analyses on 92 primary tumors representing the entire spectrum of the morphologic subtypes using microsatellite markers at chromosome 3p, 4p, 8p, 9p, 11q, 17p, and 18q regions and correlated the results with the clinicopathologic features and patients' survival. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) at D9S168 and D9S171 markers on chromosome 9p regions was commonly identified in all subtypes. Distinctive alterations in certain subtypes were noted at chromosomes 3p, 4p, 8p, and 11p regions. In general, less aggressive types (verrucous, papillary, and well-differentiated conventional) had a significantly lower LOH incidence than the more aggressive (basaloid, sarcomatoid, and high-grade conventional squamous carcinoma) categories. Significant association between LOH and age, stage, nodal status, and patient outcome was found. Survival analysis revealed that pathologic categorization (less versus more aggressive) and LOH at marker D11S4167 and D3S2432 are independent predictors of patients' survival. Our analysis also defined a set of limited markers that account for most of alterations within and across these tumor subtypes. Our study indicates that 1) certain genetic markers are common to all subtypes of HNSC supporting their early involvement in tumorigenesis, 2) inter- and intratumoral genetic differences evolve subsequently and may underlie their morphologic heterogeneity, 3) high incidence of LOH in certain regions characterizes aggressive tumors, 4) categorical classification and LOH at 11p and 3p regions independently correlated with patient survival, and 5) a limited set of markers identify the majority of genetic alterations in these tumors.