Relationship of E-cadherin with cervical lymph node metastasis in laryngeal cancer.

E-cadherin, a 120 kDa transmembrane protein, plays an important role in malignant progression and tumour differentiation. The loss or reduction in E-cadherin expression has been found in several tumours including laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. The present study aimed to investigate the prognostic implications of changes in expression of the E-cadherin in laryngeal carcinoma. E-cadherin expression was determined by immunohistochemistry in paraffin- embedded tissue specimens from 80 patients. A staining score was given based on the percentage of cells stained (0-100%). E-cadherin expression varied greatly among tissue samples from 2 to 72 (median 25). Using the median expression of E-cadherin as a cut- off 41 (51.3%) tumours were classified in the "low E-cadherin" group and the rest, 39 (48.7%) tumours, consisted the "high E-cadherin" group. We found significant differences in the staining scores of E-cadherin between those tumours with and without nodal metastases (p = 0.025) and advanced clinical stage (TNM stage III and IV) (p = 0.014). The results of a stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that E-cadherin staining score and the location of primary tumour were independent predictors of nodal metastases. The immunohistochemical determination of E-cadherin expression may be useful instrument to characterise the metastatic potential of carcinomas. Larger studies are needed to confirm the role of E-cadherin expression in predicting the behavior of laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas.