Correlation between anti-survivin antibody and survivin mRNA expression in head and neck cancer patients

Abstract

Conclusions: Survivin may act as a major cancer antigen in head and neck cancer, and the present study revealed a link between systemic anti-survivin antibody responses and survivin expression in cancer tissues in patients with head and neck cancer. Objectives: Survivin is highly expressed in cancer cells, but is expressed at low levels or not at all in normal tissues. Little is known about the relationship between survivin expression and antibody responses to survivin in patients with head and neck cancer. Methods: Anti-survivin antibody responses in sera of head and neck cancer patients were investigated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The expression of survivin mRNA in the cancer tissues from larynx and hypopharynx was examined by quantitative RT-PCR. Results: Sera from 42 of 55 patients (76.4%) were positive for anti-survivin. High levels of anti-survivin were detected in patients in the advanced stage of disease. Most cancer tissues, but not normal adjacent tissues, expressed survivin mRNA, and a significant correlation between the levels of anti-survivin antibody in the serum and survivin mRNA in cancer tissues was detected.

Keywords::

• Carcinogenesis
• antibody response
• ELISA

Acknowledgment

We thank Dr M. Eto for her invaluable cooperation.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.