P057: Cystic Supraclavicular Neck Masses: Diagnosis and Management

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To assess the correlation between cortaction overexpression, the clinicopathological characteristics, and tumor behavior in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). METHODS: Some 122 OSCC patients subjected to surgical resection of primary tumor and neck dissection between January 2001 to September 2004 were enrolled in the study. Cortactin expression of tumor tissue by immunohistochemical stain, tumor size, lymph node numbers, differentiation status, lymphvascular invasion, local-regional recurrence, and distant metastasis were evaluated. The outcome measurement was schematic with Kaplan-Meire survival method. The Fisher exact test and Chi-square test were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Statistical analysis indicates no correlation between cortactin overexpression with pathologic grade (P ϭ 0.960), or tumor site (P ϭ 0.377). Nevertheless, statistical differences were found with respect to pT stage of primary tumor (P ϭ 0.037), pN stage of lymph node metastasis (P ϭ 0.007), disease stage (P ϭ 0.01), disease status (P ϭ 0.00034), and tumor recurrence (P ϭ 0.00123). The cumulative survival after surgery is typically correlated with disease stage, regardless of cortactin expression (P ϭ 0.001). Also, there is a statistically significant difference in cortactin levels between stages I/II or III/IV OSCC patients (P ϭ 0.048, and P ϭ 0.006). CONCLUSIONS: EMS1 gene amplification and the concomitant overexpression of cortactin have been shown to correlate with poor prognosis and tumor metastasis in OSCC.