Expression and significance of Survivin and CD44 V6 protein in laryngeal carcinoma

Objective To investigate the relationship between the expression of Survivin and CD44V6 Protein and the clinicopathologic parameters in laryngeal carcinoma. Methods Immunohistochemical technique (S P) and image analysis were used to detect the expression of Survivin and CD44V6 Protein in 54 cases of laryngeal carcinoma , margins of laryngeal carcinoma and 20 cases of normal mucous membrane of palatoglossal pillar. Results ① Expression of survivin was detected in 66.7% (36/54) in laryngeal carcinoma, 40.7% (22/54) in margins of laryngeal carcinoma and negative in normal mucous membrane of palatoglossal pillar. A significant difference was observed for positive index (PI) in three groups (P 0.01 ). PI of Survivin was related to histological grades、TNM stages and neck lymphoid node metastasis in laryngeal carcinoma (P 0.01 or P 0.05 ). PI of Survivin was not related to position of laryngeal carcinoma (P 0.05 ). ② Expression of CD44V6 was positive in 70.4% (38/54) in laryngeal carcinoma, 24.1% (13/54) in margins of laryngeal carcinoma and 10.0% (2/20) in the control groups. There was a significant difference for PI in the three groups (P 0.01 ). PI of CD44V6 was related to histological grades and neck lymphoid node metastasis in laryngeal carcinoma. It had no relationship with TNM stages and position of tumour in laryngeal carcinoma (P 0.05 ). (3) There was a positive correlation between expression of Survivin and CD44V6 protein (r= 0.53 , P 0.01 ). Conclusions ① The up regulation of Survivin and high rate of CD44V6 might play synergetic roles in the process of carcinogenesis of laryngeal carcinoma. ② The expression of Survivin stands for the middle course in cell biological transformation and is valuable in the early diagnosis. The expression degree of Survivin has an effect on malignant degree and development tendency of carcinoma. It can indicate prognosis of carcinoma of larynx to a certain extent. The treatment of Survivin gene has a good direction of target, and it may be identified as a potential therapeutic target in carcinoma of larynx. ③ Significant difference was observed for PI of CD44V6 in different histological grades, and PI of CD44v6 was related to nect lymphoid node metastasis. It suggests that laryngeal carcinoma with high rate of CD44V6 has stronger invasion. PI of CD44V6 may indicate poor prognosis to a certain extent for patients with laryngeal carcinoma.