Highly expressed CCR7 predicts poor prognosis in locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NC) is a malignant human tumor with a high incidence that occurs on the top and lateral wall of the nasopharynx.

To investigate the clinical value of chemokine receptor 7 (CCR7) in locally advanced NC.

We enrolled 114 patients with locally advanced NC admitted to our hospital in the observation group (OBG) and 100 normal healthy subjects who underwent physical examination in the control group (COG). The serum CCR7 expression levels in each group were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and were compared between the groups.

None of the 114 patients or their family members were lost during follow-up. Thirty-five patients died within 3 years and 79 survived (survival rate: 69.29%). The serum CCR7 level was higher in the OBG than in the COG (P < 0.05). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.837 for diagnostic value for locally advanced NC and the AUC was 0.759 for predictive value for 3-year mortality. The CCR7 AUC for diagnosis of locally advanced NC was 0.837 and for prediction of mortality was 0.759. Univariate analysis revealed significant differences in smoking history, long-term consumption of pickled food, family history of NC, primary lesion staging, lymph node staging, distant metastasis, clinical pathological staging, and CCR7 between the two groups (P < 0.05).

CCR7 was valuable in the diagnosis of locally advanced NC, and highly expressed CCR7 was predictive of poor prognosis.