EVI1 as a marker for lymph node metastasis in HNSCC

Background: HNSCC is the sixth most common cancer in humans and has still a very poor prognosis. The treatment methods so far are very often associated with mutilation and impairment in the quality of life. Except for p16 expression, there are no reliable prognostic markers in HNSCC so far. Ecotropic Viral Integration Site 1 (EVI1) is a well-described prognostic marker in leukemia and different types of solid cancers. In these, a high EVI1 expression is associated with a poor prognosis. In HNSCC, it is not known so far if EVI1 has any prognostic relevance. Materials and Methods: We used our representative tissue cohort of 389 primary HNSCCs, of which 57.2% had one or more lymph node metastases. Here EVI1 expression was analyzed via immunohistochemistry and correlated with the clinical characteristics of these patients. Results: Although in HNSCC EVI1 expression does not predict poor survival, a high EVI1 expression in the primary tumor correlates with a lymph node metastatic disease. Conclusion: Consequently, EVI1 may serve as a biomarker to predict an occult lymph node metastasis in a clinical nodal negative (cN0) HNSCC.