Ataxia-Telangiectasia-Mutated Protein Expression as a Prognostic Marker in Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of the Salivary Glands

373 510

Cited 6 times in

Authors: Shadavlonjid Bazarsad ; Jue Young Kim ; Xianglan Zhang ; Ki-Yeol Kim ; Doo Young Lee ; Mi Heon Ryu ; Jin Kim

MeSH: Adult ; Aged ; Ataxia Telangiectasia/metabolism ; Ataxia Telangiectasia Mutated Proteins/metabolism* ; Biomarkers, Tumor/analysis ; Biomarkers, Tumor/metabolism ; Carcinoma, Adenoid Cystic/metabolism* ; Carcinoma, Adenoid Cystic/mortality ; Carcinoma, Mucoepidermoid/genetics* ; Female ; Genes, p53 ; Humans ; Immunohistochemistry ; Kaplan-Meier Estimate ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Neoplasm Recurrence, Local ; Phosphorylation/genetics ; Prognosis ; Republic of Korea ; Salivary Gland Neoplasms/metabolism* ; Salivary Gland Neoplasms/mortality ; Salivary Gland Neoplasms/pathology ; Salivary Glands/pathology ; Survival Rate ; Tumor Suppressor Protein p53/metabolism*

Keywords: Adenoid cystic carcinoma ; ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) ; p53 ; prognostic marker ; salivary gland

Abstract: PURPOSE:

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) is a high-grade malignant tumor of the salivary glands, clinically characterized by multiple recurrences and late distant metastasis. Biological markers for assessing the prognosis of ACC have remained elusive. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the protein expressions of ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), p53, and ATM-mediated phosphorylated p53 are related to patient survival in ACC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

In this study, 48 surgical samples were used to assess the expressions of ATM and its downstream target p53. Fisher's exact test and Kaplan-Meier analysis were conducted to evaluate the role of ATM, p53, and phospho-p53 (S15) protein expressions in predicting patient survival and distant metastasis.

RESULTS:

Myb expression was positive in 85.4% of ACCs, but did not reflect patient survival rate. In contrast, low expression of ATM in cancer cells was significantly correlated with poor survival rate (p=0.037). Moreover, under positive p53 expression, low expression of ATM was highly predictive of poor survival in ACC (p=0.017).

CONCLUSION:

These data indicate that combined assessment of ATM and p53 expression can serve as a useful prognostic marker for assessing survival rate in patients with ACC of the salivary glands.