Profile of Serum Heat Shock Protein-27 Level in Patients with Salivary Gland Tumor

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM: Heat shock protein 27 (HSP(27)) plays important roles in many cellular processes and has been implicated in different types of diseases such as cancers. PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the serum level of HSP(27) in patients with salivary gland tumors and to determine its possible correlation with the prognosis of the disease. MATERIALS AND METHOD: This cross-sectional study was performed on 60 patients with sali-vary gland tumor including 16 pleomorphic adenoma, 33 adenoid cystic carcinoma, 6 mu-coepidermoid carcinoma, 5 acinic cell carcinoma, and 28 healthy control subjects. The con-trol cases were healthy blood donors who matched the study group in age and sex. Serum samples were obtained from the clotted blood and HSP(27)concentrations were measured with sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Statistical analysis was performed by using one-way ANOVA, post Hoc test, independent sample t-test, and ROC analysis. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered as significant. RESULTS: The mean serum level of HSP(27) was 3956.1±3830.1 (pg/ml) in patients with malig-nant salivary gland tumor, which was significantly higher than that in benign salivary gland tumor (752.2±485.6) and healthy controls (602.3±575.8) (p <0.001). However, there was no significant difference in the HSP(27) serum levels between the patients with benign salivary gland tumors and healthy controls (p= 0.2). No association was detected between the mean serum levels of HSP(27) and clinicopathologic factors such as age, sex, stage and nodal metas-tasis (p > 0.05), except for the tumor size (p= 0.04). CONCLUSION: The HSP(27) concentration increased in patients with malignant salivary gland tumors. Moreover, the HSP(27) level was correlated with tumor growth, invasiveness, and diagnosability. Yet, larger clinical studies are required to explore its prognostic value.