The prognosis outcome of oral squamous cell carcinoma using HIF-2α

Hypoxia-induced factors (HIF) has a role in angiogenesis and regulate tumorigenesis of cancer cell. The HIF is the best-identified mechanism that shows imbalance between consumption and oxygen supply in progressing tumor. This study of HIF-2α expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) aimed to investigate the relationship of HIF-2α and pathology characteristics related to its clinical correlation.

Fifty-eight samples of OSCC and adjacent tissues were fixed in paraffin for microarray preparation. The tissue array then was stained using primary antibody HIF-2α (NB100-122) and autoprobe II ABC universal staining kit. Each tissue sample was captured using camera microscope, and images were analyzed with Photoshop 6.0 using the CMYK method. A statistical analysis was performed with the two-tailed t-test, Kaplan-Meier and log-rank test using Prism for Windows version 5.0.

The samples of the non-cancerous matched tissues (NCMTs) paired with their OSCC samples showed HIF-2α overexpression with significance difference p < 0.0001. Although no significant difference was found between HIF-2α expression and overall survival rate, cancer-specific survival rate, and disease-free survival rate, the HIF-2α expression showed statistical significance for overall cancer stages with p = 0.013. In addition, patients with high HIF-2α expression tended to develop recurrence within 2 years compared to the low expression group.

HIF-2 expression has complicated roles in different cancer types, including OSCC. Our study indicated that HIF-2α overexpression can serve as a good biomarker for cancer status for all tumor stages and may predict an early recurrence within two years.