Expression of haptoglobin predicts recurrence in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Background: We determined whether expression of haptoglobin by head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cells is associated with prognosis.

Methods: Western blotting was carried out to investigate the expression of haptoglobin in oral cancer cell lines. We study patients with HNSCC without distant metastasis at diagnosis. Correlation between cellular haptoglobin and clinical characteristics of HNSCC was analyzed to assess the prognostic value of cellular haptoglobin level. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and log-rank test were used to evaluate differences in recurrence, distant metastasis, and overall survival rates between patients grouped according to cellular haptoglobin level in cancer tissues. The relationship of haptoglobin expression with survival was assessed using Cox proportional hazard models.

Results: Western blotting analysis showed that haptoglobin protein was expressed in 4 oral cancer cell lines. The recurrence rate was higher in HNSCC patients with over-expression of haptoglobin (>50%) (P=0.045). Over-expression of haptoglobin was also associated with an increased risk for recurrence (hazard ratio [HR] 3.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.127-8.895; P=0.029) after adjusting for age, gender, disease site, stage, and treatment modality.

Conclusions: Altogether, the data presented show that cellular expression of haptoglobin is closely related to recurrence rate in HNSCC patients. The elevated risk of relapse was confirmed in a multivariate analysis. The cellular expression of haptoglobin may be a prognostic factor in HNSCC.