Prognostic cytokine markers in peripheral blood for oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma identified by multiplexed immunobead-based profiling

Abstract

Background: Oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide and has been considered to be highly associated with altered biological processes, including immunocyte chemotaxis, inflammatory response, angiogenesis, and/or immune regulation, suggesting that the levels of the tumor-related cytokines and chemokines will be dysregulated in the tumor microenvironment as well as in the systemic circulation and might be associated with some OSCC phenotypes.

Methods: To profile cytokines in OSCC patients, the plasma levels of 48 proteins (26 cytokines, 10 chemokines, and 12 growth factors) were measured in 111 untreated OSCC patients, 112 healthy individuals, and 107 individuals with oral premalignant lesion (OPL).

Result: Compared to the plasma levels in the healthy individuals and OPL group, the levels of 12 proteins were significantly dysregulated in the OSCC patients. Further analysis demonstrated that the levels of IFN-α2, IL-2RA, and SCF were significantly lower in patients with higher pT status. IFN-α2 levels also decreased in patients with higher tumor depths. Moreover, OSCC patients with greater levels of VEGF (>4.87 pg/ml) before treatment had worse prognoses for overall survival after treatment (P=0.035).

Conclusions: This is the first report showing that the plasma VEGF levels may be a useful prognostic indicator of OSCC.