Expression of the tumour-suppressor maspin in temporal bone carcinoma.

AIMS: Although it accounts for fewer than 0.2% of all head and neck tumours, temporal bone squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is an aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis in advanced cases. Novel therapeutic strategies should be developed focusing on specific targeted therapies. Maspin is a serpin showing tumour-suppressing activity which has therapeutic potential. The present study is the first to investigate maspin expression in temporal bone SCCs, using a series of 29 cases. METHODS AND RESULTS: Cytoplasmic maspin expression was significantly higher in the group of patients whose SCC did not recur than in the group experiencing recurrences (P = 0.029), and in G1-G2 SCCs than in G3 cases (P = 0.001). cT correlated with recurrence rate (P = 0.05), disease-free survival (DFS) (P = 0.008) and disease-specific survival (DSS) (P = 0.0043), and pT and pathological regional lymph node status correlated with recurrence rate (P = 0.008 and P = 0.03, respectively), DFS (P = 0.017 and P = 0.0049, respectively) and DSS (P = 0.008 and P = 0.0009, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Although further studies using larger series are required, our preliminary findings suggest that cytoplasmic maspin expression has promise as a prognostic indicator of disease recurrence in temporal bone SCC, and that reactivating maspin functions in association with apoptosis-inducing or anti-angiogenic chemotherapeutic agents might be an important goal in the treatment of temporal bone SCC.