[Expression of SOX2 protein and its clinical significance in laryngeal carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the expression of SOX2 in laryngeal carcinoma and analyze the relation of SOX2 and clinical factors. METHOD: We measured the expression of SOX2 protein in 45 laryngeal carcinoma fresh samples and 45 paracarcinoma tissues (cutting margin > 0.5 cm) with flow cytometer (Epics-XL II), 20 normal laryngeal mucosa samples were also studied as controls. RESULT: The quantitative and qualitative expression of SOX2 protein in laryngeal carcinoma tissues was obviously higher than those in paracarcinoma and in normal laryngeal mucosa tissues respectively (P < 0 05). There was no significant difference between the expression of paracarcinoma and normal laryngeal mucosa tissues. In laryngeal carcinoma, the expression of SOX2 protein wasn't significantly related to patients' clinical classification, tumor size, smoking history, patients' age and sex but related to metastasis, pathological grade and clinical stage. CONCLUSION: The high expression of SOX2 may contribute to the carcinogenesis and development of laryngeal carcinoma. It is an important index of judging metastasis and staging and prognosis of laryngeal carcinoma to measure the expression of SOX2 protein.