The role of CD44 and matrix metalloproteinase-9 expression in predicting neck metastasis of supraglottic laryngeal carcinoma.

AIM: The aim of this study is to evaluate the role of CD44 and matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 expression in predicting neck metastasis of supraglottic laryngeal carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred ninety-four supraglottic laryngeal cancers were treated surgically from 1991 to 2005. Ninety-four of the 294 patients had pathologically metastatic lymph node (pN+). Among the 94 patients, 30 pN+ patients were selected via random sampling. Sex-, T value-, and differentiation-matched 30 patients who had pathologically negative neck were also selected. CD44 and MMP-9 antibodies were applied to the tumor representative sections that were derived from paraffin sections by using the streptavidin-biotin method. The association between immunohistochemical results and histopathologic lymph node metastasis was analyzed statistically. The association between immunostaining of CD44 and MMP-9 was also analyzed. RESULTS: Overexpression of CD44 and MMP-9 was found to be significantly higher in pN+ patients. There was fair concordance between immunostaining of CD44 and MMP-9. CONCLUSION: Although wider multiinstitutional and multidisciplinary studies are needed to draw specific conclusions, CD44 and MMP-9 can be useful in the prediction of neck metastasis in the supraglottic laryngeal carcinoma.