Prognostic Influence of Cytoplasmic/Nuclear Hepatoma-derived Growth Factor in Head and Neck Cancer.

BACKGROUND/AIM We investigated the prognostic influence of both hepatoma-derived growth factor (HDGF) and p53 expression in head and neck cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS HDGF and p53 immunostaining was scored based on staining intensities and percentage of tumor cells stained using tissue microarray composed of total 102 head and neck cancer samples. RESULTS Over-expression of HDGF and p53 was observed in cancer compared with adjacent normal tissues (p<0.001). In multivariate analyses, tumors with higher nuclear and cytoplasmic HDGF staining scores (p=0.019), and tumors with cN1-cN2 (compared with cN0) (p=0.014), were associated with worse overall survival. CONCLUSION The increased expression of HDGF and p53 in the tumor compared with adjacent normal tissues could be a risk factor for tumorigenesis. Increased nuclear and cytoplasmic expression of HDGF, and cN staging correlated with overall survival and negatively influenced prognosis in head and neck cancer.