Expression and clinical significance of c-kit in nasopharyngeal carcinoma on tissue microarrary

Objective:c-kit protein plays an important role in carcinogenesis,progression of tumors,and it is a target of imatinib.The study was to investigate the expression and clinical significance of c-kit in nasopharyngeal carcinoma(NPC) and evaluate the possibility of treatment with imatinib.Methods:Formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded specimens of 153 nasopharyngeal carcinomas and 165 normal epithelium of nasopharyngeal cavity were stained by tissue microarray technique.Among 153 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients,42 had the clinical data,including gender,age,stage and survival datas.Results:The results showed that 37.3%(57/153) of NPC biopsy samples were positive for c-kit,while only 4.8%(8/165) of normal nasopharyngeal epithelium samples stained positively(P=0.000).c-kit expression did not correlate with gender,age,clinical stage,yet correlated with poor local regional failure free survival(P0.05),and approximately correlated with advanced T classification(P=0.067).Conclusion:Our results suggest that c-kit overexpression may be found significantly more frequently in NPC than in normal nasopharyngeal cavity tissue,and it correlates with poor local regional failure free survival.Moreover,those results provide a foundation to investigate imatinib therapy in NPC patients.