Background: genetic studies of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) are rare in Egypt. Increased expression of some relevant genes may have diagnostic and therapeutic implications.
Aim of the study: to compare the expression of HMGA2 and MMP12 genes in LSCC tumor tissue with their expression in adjacent non-tumor tissue.
Type of the study: Descriptive study
Setting: Tertiary referral hospital-Ismailia-Egypt
Patients and Methods: 24 male patients (age range 49-78 years) with LSCC were included in the study. Under general anesthesia, two biopsies were taken: one from the tumor tissue and the other from the adjacent normal tissue and they were examined histopathologically and then analyzed for level of expression of MMP12 and HMGA2 genes.
Results: Median expression levels of HMGA2 and MMP12 in the whole group were 0.98 and .8 (fold change) in normal tissue and 6.49 and 122.6 (fold change) in tumor tissue respectively. There was higher expression of the HMGA2 and MMP12 genes in tumor tissue compared to normal tissue (P <0.0001). Also there was positive correlation of level of expression of the two genes with the degree of tumor differentiation (P <.0001 and p<.0008)
Conclusion: Expression of HMGA2 and MMP12 genes is higher in LSCC compared to normal tissue samples. The higher the level of expression of the two genes, the poorer the degree of differentiation of the tumor Further studies should be pursued to determine the diagnostic, therapeutic and prognostic implications of this in management of LSCC.