Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck region is the sixth most frequent
malignancy with high mortality rate. Due to its poor prognosis it is considered a growing public health problem worldwide inspite of existing treatment modalities. Thus, early diagnosis of new diseases and recurrences is emerging on one hand, but on the other hand troublesome in the lack of reliable
tumor markers in this field. The rapid development of proteomics has opened new perspectives in
tumor marker discovery. Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) as the gold standard in proteomics enables the semi-quantitative analysis of
proteins within various tissues. Abundance differences between
tumor and normal tissue also can be interpreted as
tumor specific changes. The aim of this study was to identify potential
tumor markers of laryngeal/hypopharyngeal SCC by revealing abundance changes between cancerous and the surrounding phenotypically healthy tissue. After separating the phenotypically cancerous and healthy parts of
formalin-fixed
paraffin-embedded tissues, each sample underwent
protein recovery process and tryptic digestion for label-free semi-quantitative LC/MS analysis. Eight
proteins showed significantly higher abundance in
tumor including
tenascin, transmembrane emp24 domain-containing
protein 2,
cytoplasmic dynein light chain 1, coactosin-like
protein,
small proline-rich protein 2D,
nucleolin, U5
small nuclear RNP 200-kDa helicase and
fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase. Desmoglein-1 and
keratin type I cytoskeletal 9 were down-regulated in
tumor. Using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis we mapped the signaling pathways these
proteins play role in regarding other
tumors. Based on these findings these
proteins may serve as promising
biomarkers in the fight against laryngeal/hypopharyngeal SCCs.