[Expression of CD44 and nm23-H1 protein in the primary and metastatic lymph node lesions in supraglottic and hypopharyngeal cancer].

Objective: To study the metastasis feature of the primary and metastatic lymph node lesions in supraglottic or hypopharyngeal cancer.

Methods: The expression of CD44 and nm23-H1 in specimens from the primary and metastatic lymph node lesions of the 41 cases with supraglottic or hypopharyngeal cancer were studied with immunohistochemistry method and flow cytometry.

Results: No correlation was found between the expression of CD44, nm23-H1 and the tumor differentiation of the supraglottic or hypopharyngeal cancer, but their expression related with the clinical staging. The CD44 and nm23-H1 positive expression rates in the primary and metastatic lymph node lesions were 75.6% (31/41), 85.4% (35/41) and 34.1% (14/41), 26.8% (11/41) respectively (P >0.05). The average fluorescence index of CD44 and nm23-H1 in the primary and metastatic lymph node lesions were 1.27 +/- 0.18, 1.33 +/- 0.16 and 1.11 +/- 0.19, 1.08 +/- 0.15 (x +/- s) respectively (P >0.05).

Conclusions: The expressions of CD44 and nm23-H1 in the metastatic lymph node tumor had no difference compared with that in primary tumor of the supraglottic or hypopharyngeal cancer. The difference of metastasis potentials between the primary and metastatic lymph node lesions in the same patient was not proved in this study and should be further investigated from multiple oncogens markers.