Expression of HIF-1α and CAIX in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and their correlation with patients’ prognosis

Abstract

This study investigates the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor-l alpha (HIF-1α) and carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) tissues and their correlation with clinicopathological features and prognosis in NPC patients. The expression of HIF-1α and CAIX proteins was detected by immunohistochemical staining in 129 samples of NPC and 20 samples of chronic nasopharyngitis. The correlations between the expression of these two proteins and clinicopathological features and prognosis were evaluated in NPC patients. Our results showed that the positive expression rates of HIF-1α and CAIX proteins in NPC were significantly higher than those in chronic nasopharyngitis (both P < 0.01). In addition, high HIF-1α protein expression was correlated with lymph node metastasis and advanced clinical stage for NPC patients (both P < 0.01), whereas there were no findings of correlations between CAIX protein expression and gender, age, T stage, node involvement and clinical stage (all P > 0.05). The Spearman analysis indicated that HIF-1α was positively correlated with CAIX expression (r = 0.249, P = 0.004). HIF-1α and CAIX co-expression was associated with the poor overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), loco-regional relapse-free survival (LRRFS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) in NPC patients (P = 0.017, P = 0.022, P = 0.033, and P = 0.017, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that the positive expression of CAIX protein was an independent prognostic factor for PFS, LRRFS and DMFS. In conclusion, overexpression of HIF-1α and CAIX might be involved in the carcinogenesis and development of NPC and they were associated with patients’ poor prognosis.

MicroRNA-338 inhibits migration and proliferation by targeting hypoxia-induced factor 1α in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

“…Hypoxia or low oxygen tension has emerged as a specific and general feature of the microenvironment of many malignant tumors (23), including nasopharyngeal cancer (24). Tumor hypoxia is known to be mainly responsible for tumor resistance to radiotherapy and chemotherapy as well as to promote tumor phenotype influencing invasiveness, metastasis and poor prognosis (24).…”

“…Hypoxia or low oxygen tension has emerged as a specific and general feature of the microenvironment of many malignant tumors (23), including nasopharyngeal cancer (24). Tumor hypoxia is known to be mainly responsible for tumor resistance to radiotherapy and chemotherapy as well as to promote tumor phenotype influencing invasiveness, metastasis and poor prognosis (24). Studies showed that 100% of primary NPC and 58% of cervical nodal metastases of NPC were found with hypoxic regions which increased distant metastases, as well as resistance to chemotherapy in advanced NPC patients (25).…”

Elevated expression of CD93 promotes angiogenesis and tumor growth in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

“…As is known to all, NPC is a highly metastatic head and neck cancer with high incidence and mortality rates in China and Southeast Asia [21,22]. So, it is important to understand the potential mechanism associated with NPC progression.…”

Nuclear magnetic resonance-based study reveals the metabolomics profile of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

“…Concurrent chemoradiotherapy and the combination with adjuvant chemotherapy significantly prolongs the survival time of NPC patients (Liu et al, 2013). Although recent medical advances have extended the 5-year overall survival rate, there is still no marker for NPC prognosis, except for disease stage (Chen et al, 2014). Unfortunately, the majority of NPC patients in endemic areas are diagnosed at an advanced stage, owing to the relatively inaccessible nasopharynx site and the insidious clinical course of NPC in China (Liu et al, 2013).…”