N-Cadherin Expression with Metastasis of Neck Lymph Nodes in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Lymph node (LN) metastases were one characteristic of negative progress of NPC patient despite its advanced therapeutic approaches. One mechanism for the occurrence of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT)-mediated metastases is by increasing N-cadherin expression. The purpose of this research is to determine investigating N-cadherin expression against metastatic LN in NPC cases. METHODS: Samples were taken by unproportionate stratified random sampling. N-cadherin expression was examined using immunohistochemistry methods. N-cadherin expression was assessed visually by binocular light microscopy. We analyzed these data using Mann–Whitney U-test to examine N-cadherin expression and lymph node metastases. RESULTS: A strong expression was found in N3 group by 63.6%; 27.3% in the N2 group and 9.1% in the N1 group. In patients with NPC N0 or without lymph node metastases, N-cadherin expression is 0%. The expression of N-cadherin is indeed an indicator of the occurrence of lymph node metastases in NPC with a statistically significant analysis of p = 0.026 (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: There were correlations between N-cadherin expression and lymph node metastasis on NPC patients.