Alpha B-crystallin is a new prognostic marker for laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Alpha B-crystallin (αB-crystallin) has been suggested to play an important role in the development of solid tumors. However, the association between αB-crystallin expression and clinicopathological characteristics of human laryngeal carcinoma is not well defined. This study aimed to examine the expression of αB-crystallin in human laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) and investigate the relationship between its expression and the prognosis of LSCC. METHODS: Real-time polymerase chain reaction (six LSCC samples, six tumor-adjacent normal samples) and immunohistochemistry by tissue microarrays (109 LSCC samples and 28 tumor-adjacent normal samples) were performed to characterize expression of the αB-crystallin gene in LSCC. Kaplan-Meier survival and Cox regression analyses were carried out to evaluate the prognosis of LSCC. RESULTS: Real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry analysis showed that the expression of αB-crystallin in LSCC was significantly higher than that in tumor-adjacent normal tissues. Moreover, the expression level of αB-crystallin protein in LSCC was significantly related to alcohol consumption (P = 0.022), tumor differentiation (P = 0.007), pTNM stage (P = 0.041) and 5 years’ survival (P =0.030). COX multi-factor analysis showed that αB-crystallin (P = 0.013), as well as pTNM stage (P =0.027) and lymphatic metastasis (P = 0.015) were independent prognosis factors for LSCC. CONCLUSIONS: The data suggest that αB-crystallin expression is correlated with malignant phenotypes of LSCC and it may serve as a novel prognostic factor for LSCC.