Expression of HGF/c-Met in Hypopharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), a potent stimulator of hepatocyte growth, stimulates motility, invasiveness, proliferation, and morphogenesis of epithelium, and may be involved in physiologic and pathologic processes such as embryogenesis, wound healing, organ regeneration, inflammation, and tumor invasion. So we examined the role of the HGF/c-Met on invasion and metastasis of hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). We performed immunohistochemical stains on 40 normal mucosas and 40 SCCs of hypopharynx with HGF antibody and c-Met antibody. For RT-PCR and Western blot, fresh normal tissues and cancer tissues in hypopharynx obtained from five patients were used. The positive rates of HGF and c-Met expression in hypopharyngeal SCC were 77.5% and 70%, respectively. HGF staining was significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and pathologic stage (p<0.05). c-Met staining was only significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis (p<0.05). The increased expresssion of c-Met mRNA (RT-PCR) and protein (Western Blot) were detected in hypopharyngeal cancer tissue. These results suggest that HGF may play an important role in the progression of hypopharyngeal cancer.