Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma as a negative regulator

Abstract

Conclusion: Duffy antigen receptor for chemokines (DARC), as a negative regulator, could attenuate the potential growth and metastasis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC); hence it could be considered as a basis for a new prognostic aid and molecular therapeutic target in treating LSCC. Objectives: To analyze the role of DARC in LSCC progression using LSCC clinical samples. Methods: A total of 65 LSCC tissues were examined immunohistochemically for DARC protein expression. The microvessel density (MVD) was determined by the endothelial cells immunostained using anti-CD34 antibody. Results: It was found that DARC was expressed in the LSCC samples, with a high expression in 32 of our cases (49.2%), and in lymph node-negative and -positive groups of 24 (72.7%) and 8 cases (25%), respectively (p < 0.01). MVD was (24.75 ± 5.45)/High power field (HP) and (32.58 ± 5.23)/HP in the cases with high and low expression of DARC, respectively (p < 0.01). More importantly, the DARC expression presented a strong negative correlation with nodal metastasis, with pTNM stage, and with recurrence, and the cases with a high DARC expression indicated a higher survival rate. In addition, the multivariate analysis showed that the DARC expression was an independent prognostic factor (p = 0.032; hazard ratio, 21.476; 95% confidence interval, 1.297–355.68).

Keywords::

• Laryngeal neoplasm
• microvessel density
• immunohistochemistry

Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Z.L. Ou (Central Laboratory of Cancer Hospital, Fudan University) for helpful discussion, Professors H.F. Lu and W.Q. Sheng (Department of Pathology of Cancer Hospital, Fudan University) for the immunohistochemistry technique, and the patients who made this study possible.

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