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Biomarkers predicted outcome in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma
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In patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, pretreatment BCL2 expression identified a subset of patients with elevated risk for treatment failure after concurrent chemoradiation, independent of HPV status.
To determine whether the combination of two biomarkers, BCL2 expression and HPV infection, predicted chemoradiation failure in patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, researchers obtained pretreatment tumor biopsy specimens from 68 patients treated with platinum-based concurrent chemoradiation. They were tested for HPV and immunostained for the anti-apoptotic protein BCL2. Median follow-up was 45 months.
James W. Rocco, MD, PhD, assistant professor of otology and laryngology at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and assistant surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston, presented the findings of this study.
BCL2 and HPV independently predicted DFS and OS. In bivariate analysis, for BCL2, the HR was 6.1 for DFS and 7.4 for OS (P≤.01 for both). For HPV, the HR was 0.11 for DFS and 0.19 for OS (P≤.01 for both).
Among patients with HPV-associated tumors, one of 32 patients with BCL-negative tumors had recurrence after concurrent chemoradiation. Five of 21 patients with BCL2-positive, HPV-positive tumors had recurrence. There was also an association between pretreatment BCL2 expression and failure through distant metastasis (P<.018).
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- Rocco JW. #16.