Clinical features and the molecular biomarkers of olfactory neuroblastoma

Olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) is a kind of rare and complex head and neck tumor. The reports on this field are very scarce due to the low morbidity. Here, we summarized the clinical features and prognosis of ONB through analysis of 10 cases, and determined the phosphorylation status of some molecules known to be involved in carcinogesis such as Akt, Erk, Stat3 and Stat5 in ONB tissue. Ten ONB patients were recruited in this study, 6 male and 4 female, ranging from 26 to 66 years old. In the 10 cases, 6 were diagnosed as late T stage (T₃/T₄), 6 were at late Kadish stage (C/D) and 3 were at high Hyams grade (Ⅲ), which indicated a poorer prognosis. Patient characteristics-gender and tumor features were evaluated with respect to the overall survival (OS) through univariate analysis. The result indicated that the OS of male is obviously higher than that of female after a series of combined treatment. The OS of ONB patients in the late stage or high grade is lower than those in early stages or low grade. Moreover, p-Akt, p-Erk, p-Stat3 and p-Stat5 was detected in 5 (50%), 9 (90%), 7 (70%) and 0 patients (0%), respectively, suggesting the former 3 molecules might be potential biomarkers for diagnosis of ONB.