Predictive capacity of FAT1 transcriptional expression in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinomas treated with radiotherapy

Objective: To analyze the predictive capacity at the primary location of the tumor of the FAT1 transcriptional expression in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy.

Material and methods: We conducted a retrospective study from biopsies of the primary location of the tumor in 82 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy. The transcriptional expression of FAT1 was determined by RT-PCR. The level of FAT1 transcriptional expression was categorized according to the local control after radiotherapy using a recursive partitioning analysis.

Results: Elevated FAT1 transcriptional expression was associated with an increased risk of local recurrence after radiotherapy. Patients with a high expression level of FAT1 (n=18; 22.0%) had a 5-year local recurrence-free survival of 42.1% (95% CI: 18.6%-65.6%), whereas for patients with a low expression (n=64; 78.0%) it was 72.4% (95% CI: 61.5%-83.3%) (p=0.002). According to the result of a multivariate analysis, patients with a high FAT1 expression category had a 2.3-fold increased risk of local recurrence (95% CI: 1.0-5.2; p=0.043).

Conclusions: Elevated FAT1 transcriptional expression was associated with a significantly increased risk of local recurrence in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy.