Background and objective: The invasive tumor front (ITF) refers to cells or invasive nests in the junctional region of a tumor and its host. The ITF contains the most invasive cells of a tumor, and has a high prognostic value in carcinoma. The aim of this study is to investigate the epithelial-mesenchymal transformation phenotype in ITF cells of lung squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and analyze the relationship between clinicopathological features and clinical outcomes of patients.
Methods: Semiquantitative immunohistochemistry was used to examine the expression of epithelial markers (E-cadherin and β-catenin) and mesenchymal marker (vimentin) in 104 lung SCC tumor tissues.
Results: A decrease in E-cadherin expression in ITF cells was observed in 56 of 104 (53.8%) tumors from patients. This result was markedly lower than that of non-ITF cells, which eventually developed metastatic tumors and were also associated with death (P=0.04). Vimentin expression was observed in 44 of 104 (42.3%) ITF cells, which was much higher than that of non-ITF cells. The downregulation of E-cadherin and overexpression of vimentin were associated with tumor invasive pattern, lymphatic metastasis, and poor prognosis (P<0.01). The expression of β-catenin was 67.3% (70/104) in ITF cells. Moreover, ITF cells showed more nuclear and plasma-positive cells, which were closely associated with metastasis (P<0.01).
Conclusions: The loss in expression of E-cadherin/β-catenin and overexpression of vimentin in ITF cells may be associated with poor prognosis of lung SCC patients.
背景与目的 肿瘤浸润前沿（invasive tumor front, ITF）细胞是指肿瘤与宿主组织交界处的细胞或浸润的细胞团，对判断患者预后具有较高的价值。本研究旨在探讨肺鳞状细胞癌（squamous cell carcinoma, SCC）ITF细胞的上皮-间叶转化（epithelial-mesenchaymal transition, EMT）表型特点，并分析与临床病理特征和预后的关系。方法 采用免疫组织化学SP法检测104例肺SCC ITF细胞中上皮性标志物E-cadherin/β-catenin和间叶性标志物vimentin的表达。结果 E-cadherin在53.8%（56/104）的肺SCC ITF细胞中表达下调，较非ITF细胞表达降低（P=0.04），而vimentin在42.3%（44 /104）ITF细胞中表达，较非ITF肿瘤细胞表达升高；两者均与肿瘤浸润方式、肺门淋巴结转移和患者预后有相关性（P<0.01）。β-catenin在肺SCC ITF细胞的表达阳性率为67.3%（70/104），低于非ITF细胞（P<0.01），在ITF细胞呈胞质和胞核阳性表达，并与肺门淋巴结转移密切相关。结论 肺SCC ITF细胞中E-cadherin/β-catenin表达缺失和vimentin高表达可能与患者的不良预后有关。