PH20: a novel tumor marker for laryngeal cancer.

Objective: To determine whether levels of PH-20, a hyaluronidase similar to that found in human sperm, are elevated in laryngeal cancer tissue.

Design: In this case-control study. reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction was used to measure levels of PH-20 messenger RNA in tissue taken from laryngectomy specimens.

Setting: A university medical center.

Patients: We compared tissue samples taken from 11 patients with laryngeal cancer, and from 2 metastatic lymph nodes, with samples of normal, healthy laryngeal tissue and prostate cancer tissue (positive control).

Main Outcome Measure: PH-20 complementary DNA expression as quantified by densitometric analysis.

Results: Expression of PH-20 was significantly higher in nonirradiated laryngeal cancer specimens than in normal laryngeal tissue (P<.01). Metastatic lymph nodes also had higher levels of PH-20 expression than did primary laryngeal cancer tissue (P = .11) and normal laryngeal tissue (P<.01). Irradiated laryngeal cancer specimens had PH-20 levels comparable to normal.

Conclusions: We report the first data on PH-20 expression in laryngeal cancer tissue. PH-20 expression is significantly elevated in primary laryngeal cancer tissue and seems to be even higher in metastatic lesions compared with normal laryngeal tissue. PH-20 may be a useful tumor marker and prognostic tool for laryngeal cancer.