Int J Med Sci 2017; 14(5):419-424. doi:10.7150/ijms.18555 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan;
2. Department of Otolaryngology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan;
3. Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan;
4. Cancer Research Center, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan;
5. Institute of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan;
6. Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan;
7. Institute of Oral Sciences, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan;
8. Department of Dentistry, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan;
9. Department of Medical Research, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
EGF-like domain 6 (EGFL6), a member of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) repeat protein superfamily, is a secreted protein that promotes endothelial cell migration and angiogenesis. The current study investigated the association between the clinicopathological characteristics and plasma level of EGFL6 in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). We measured the plasma EGFL6 levels of 392 OSCC patients by using a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We also analyzed EGFL6 mRNA levels of 328 OSCC patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset. The results showed that plasma EGFL6 levels were significantly higher in patients with OSCC than in healthy controls (p < 0.001). Similar results were observed for the TCGA bioinformatics database. Moreover, plasma EGFL6 levels were significantly higher in the patients with advanced T status (p = 0.002), distant metastasis (p = 0.001), and higher TNM stage (p=0.033). In conclusion, our results suggest that plasma level of EGFL6 may be useful to assess disease progression, and especially advanced T status and higher TNM stage in patients with OSCC.
Keywords: EGFL6, oral squamous cell carcinoma, biomarker.