Predictive capacity for local disease control of neogenin-1 (NEO1) transcriptional expression in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

Purpose: To analyze the predictive capacity for local disease control of the transcriptional expression of neogenin-1 (NEO1) gene in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).

Methods/patients: A retrospective study was performed on tumor biopsies from 107 patients with HNSCC treated surgically. The transcriptional expression of NEO1 was determined by RT-PCR. NEO1 transcriptional expression value was categorized according to local disease control by recursive partitioning analysis.

Results: Lower NEO1 transcriptional expression was associated with worse local control after surgical treatment. Patients with lower NEO1 expression (n = 25, 23.4%) had a 5-year local recurrence-free survival of 61.8% (95% CI: 42.1-81.5%), while patients with higher NEO1 expression (n = 82, 76.6%) had a 5-year local recurrence-free survival of 85.6% (95% CI: 77.6-93.6%), (P = 0.003). According to the result of multivariable analysis, patients with lower NEO1 expression had a 2.7-fold increased risk of local tumor recurrence (95% CI: 1.0-7.0, P = 0.043) compared to patients with higher NEO1 expression.

Conclusions: HNSCC patients with a lower transcriptional expression of NEO1 have a significantly higher risk of local recurrence after surgical treatment.