Cancer Management and Research (Feb 2020)

MAGE-A11 Expression Predicts Patient Prognosis in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

  • Jia S,
  • Zhang M,
  • Li Y,
  • Zhang L,
  • Dai W

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 12
pp. 1427 – 1435

Abstract

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Shiheng Jia, 1–4 Minghui Zhang, 1–4 Yanshu Li, 1–3 Lan Zhang, 5 Wei Dai 5 1Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, Ministry of Public Health, China Medical University, Liaoning, Shenyang 110122, People’s Republic of China; 2Key Laboratory of Medical Cell Biology, Ministry of Education, China Medical University, Liaoning, Shenyang 110122, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Cell Biology, China Medical University, Liaoning, Shenyang 110122, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Clinical Medicine, China Medical University, Liaoning, Shenyang 110122, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School and Hospital of Stomatology, China Medical University, Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Liaoning, Shenyang 110002, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Wei DaiDepartment of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School and Hospital of Stomatology, China Medical University, Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Liaoning, Shenyang 110002, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-139-0988-4820Email [email protected]: Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are the sixth most common cancer worldwide. Growing evidence showed that Melanoma-associated antigen-A11 (MAGE-A11) was abnormally expressed in various malignancies, but MAGE-A11 expression and its biological roles in HNSCC had not been reported in detail. The aim of the study was to investigate the association between MAGE-A11 signatures and clinicopathological features of HNSCC patients and uncover its potential mechanisms in HNSCC patients.Methods: In the present study, we analyzed the expression of MAGE-A11 gene and evaluated the impact of MAGE-A11 genes expression on clinical outcome from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. MAGE-A11 expression was assessed in a well-characterized series of HNSCC (N = 75) with long-term follow-up and 10 cases of adjacent non-cancerous tissues, which were diagnosed between 2013 and 2014, by using immunohistochemistry. The correlation between MAGE-A11 expression and clinicopathological factors was analyzed. Kaplan–Meier and Cox regression analyses were used to assess the prognostic significance of MAGE-A11 expression among HNSCC patients.Results: The results showed that MAGE-A11 mRNA expression was increased in HNSCC tissues compared to “normal” tissues (P < 10− 12). MAGE-A11 protein expression was not correlated with lymph node status, relapse, age, gender, histological grade, differentiation, clinical stage, tumor size, radiotherapy or chemotherapy. The patients with high MAGE-A11 expression had lower 5-year overall survival (OS) rates than those with low MAGE-A11 expression as determined using the Kaplan–Meier method. The univariate and multivariate analyses confirmed that elevated MAGE-A11 was an independent prognostic factor for the OS of HNSCC patients.Conclusion: These findings indicate that MAGE-A11 may be a valuable diagnostic or prognostic marker as well as a potential molecular therapy target for HNSCC patients.Keywords: Melanoma-associated antigen-A11, immunohistochemistry, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, prognosis

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