Expression Of Homeobox Genes HOXA10and PBX1in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma And Their Clinical Significance

OBJECTIVE: To examine the expression of homeobox (HOX) A10and its cofactorpre-B-cell transcription factor1(PBX1) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and todetermine the relationship between HOXA10/PBX1and OSCC and their clinicalsignificance.METHODS: We utilized a sensitive, indirect S-P immunohistochemistry method toexamine the homeoproteins of HOXA10and PBX1in thirty cases of normal oral mucosaand sixty patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. The soft package of SPSS13.0wasused to analyse the pathological parameters and the proteins of HOXA10and PBX1.RESULTS: In all the tissue samples being observed, HOXA10protein and PBX1protein mainly stained in cell nucleus. The rate of positive expression of HOXA10proteinin normal oral mucosa was16.71%, whereas in oral squamous cell carcinoma78.31%. Thedifference between oral squamous cell carcinoma and normal oral mucosa was significant(p<0.05). The rate of positive expression of PBX1protein in normal oral mucosa was13.32%, whereas in oral squamous cell carcinoma85.02%. The difference between oralsquamous cell carcinoma and normal oral mucosa was significant, too (p<0.05).Furthermore, the expressions of HOXA10protein and PBX1protein in oral squamous cellcarcinoma was closely correlated with tumor size, tumor stage and histopathologic type(p<0.05). There was no strong correlation with tumor site, age and gender of the patients. Itwas revealed that high expression levels of HOXA10and PBX1generally to be poorprognosticators for the survival of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma.CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that the aberrant expression of homeoprotein HOXA10and its cofactor PBX1in OSCC correlated with tumor prognosis and they couldbe new diagnostic and therapeutic molecular marks of OSCC.