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  • Loss of epithelial membrane protein-2 expression confers an independent prognosticator in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a cohort study

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Pathology
Research
Loss of epithelial membrane protein-2 expression confers an independent prognosticator in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a cohort study
  1. Yi-Hsien Chen1,
  2. Li-Ching Wu2,
  3. Wen-Ren Wu3,
  4. Hung-Jung Lin1,
  5. Sung-Wei Lee4,
  6. Ching-Yih Lin5,
  7. Shih-Lun Chang6,
  8. Nan-Haw Chow7,8,
  9. Hsuan-Ying Huang9,
  10. Chien-Feng Li2,3,10,11,
  11. Han-Ping Hsu12,
  12. Yow-Ling Shiue3
  1. 1Department of Emergency Medicine, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan
  2. 2Department of Pathology, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan
  3. 3Institute of Biomedical Science, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  4. 4Department of Radiation Oncology, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Liouying, Tainan, Taiwan
  5. 5Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan
  6. 6Department of Otolaryngology, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan, Taiwan
  7. 7Department of Pathology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan
  8. 8Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan
  9. 9Department of Pathology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
  10. 10National Institute of Cancer Research, National Health Heath Research Institute, Tainan, Taiwan
  11. 11Department of Biotechnology, Southern Taiwan University, Tainan, Taiwan
  12. 12College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
  1. Correspondence to Professor Yow-Ling Shiue; ylshiue{at}mail.nsysu.edu.tw

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the expression of epithelial membrane protein-2 (EMP2) protein and its clinicopathological associations in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Design Retrospective population-based cohort study.

Setting This study was based on a biobank in Chi-Mei Medical Center (Tainan, Taiwan) from 1993 to 2002.

Participants Biopsies of 124 consecutive nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients without initial distant metastasis and treated with consistent guidelines were assessed. Immunoexpressions of EMP2 were analysed and the outcomes were correlated with clinicopathological features and patient survivals.

Primary and secondary outcome measures Immunoexpressions of EMP2 were analyzed and the outcomes were correlated with clinicopathological features and patient survivals.

Results Loss of EMP2 expression (49.2%) was correlated with advanced primary tumour (p=0.044), nodal status (p=0.045) and the 7th American Joint Committee on Cancer stage (p=0.027). In multivariate analyses, loss of EMP2 expression emerged as an independent prognosticator for worse disease-specific survival (DSS; p=0.015) and local recurrence-free survival (LRFS; p=0.030), along with the American Joint Committee on Cancer stages III–IV (p=0.034, DSS; p=0.023, LRFS).

Conclusions Loss of EMP2 expression is common and associated with adverse prognosticators and might confer tumour aggressiveness through hampering its interaction with specific membrane protein(s) and hence the downstream signal transduction pathway(s).

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2012-000900

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    Footnotes

    • To cite: Chen Y-H, Wu L-C, Wu W-R, et al. Loss of epithelial membrane protein-2 expression confers an independent prognosticator in nasopharyngeal carcinoma: a cohort study. BMJ Open 2012;2:e000900. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2012-000900

    • Contributors Y-HC, L-CW, W-RW, H-JL, S-WL, C-YL, S-LC, N-HC, H-YH, C-FL, H-PH and Y-LS participated in the conception and design, acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data. C-FL and Y-LS drafted the article and all authors revised it critically for important intellectual content. All authors gave final approval of the version to be published.

    • Funding This work was supported by grants DOH99-TD-C-111-004 (Department of Health, Taiwan) to C-FL for tissue dissection and immunohistochemical analysis; CMFHR10119 (Chi-Mei Medical Center) to L-CW for case history analysis; 98-2311-B-110-001-MY3 (National Science Council, Taiwan) to Y-LS for target (EMP2) prioritisation.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Ethics approval Ethics approval was provide by the institutional review board (IRB100-09-003).

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement The original immunostaining and statistical data are available from the corresponding author at ylshiue{at}mail.nsysu.edu.tw.