Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Expression of ezrin correlates with poor prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Tumor Biology

Abstract

A significant proportion of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) will develop regional relapse or distant metastasis after treatment. So, to find valuable prognostic factors becomes very important. To elucidate the expression of ezrin in NPC and its correlation with patients’ clinicopathologic characteristics, time to progression, and overall survival, immunohistochemistry stains for ezrin were applied to 200 tissue specimens of NPC. Ezrin expression had no significant correlation with sex, age, primary tumor stage (T), Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) VCA-IgA antibody, EBV EA-IgA antibody, and EBV DNA copy except primary nodal status (N; p = .032). Increased ezrin expression was significantly related to higher lymph nodal metastatic rate (p < .004). Among ezrin negative/weak, ezrin moderate, and ezrin intense groups, there was a significant difference for median time to progression (not reached vs. 63.2 months vs. 46 months, P < .001) and median overall survival (100.7 months vs. 80.8 months vs. 70.6 months, P < .001). Ezrin expression status was an independent prognostic factor in multivariate (Cox) analysis. Ezrin, which was significantly correlated to prognosis of disease, may be involved in the tumorigenesis, progression, and invasion of NPC. Thus, our data offer the possibility of future therapeutic targets.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Chang ET, Adami H. The enigmatic epidemiology of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Cancer Epidemiol Biomark Prev. 2006;15(10):1765–77.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Hiscox S, Jiang WG, et al. Ezrin regulates cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion, a possible role with E-cadherin/beta-catenin. J Cell Sci. 1999;112:3081–90.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mc Clatchey AI. Merlin and ERM proteins: unappreciated roles in cancer development. Nat Rev Cancer. 2003;3:877–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Vaheri A, Carp_en O, Heiska L, et al. The ezrin protein family: membrane–cytoskeleton interactions and disease associations. Curr Opin Cell Biol. 1997;9:659–66.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ilmonen S, Vaheri A, Asko-Seljävaara S, et al. Ezrin in primary cutaneous melanoma. Mod Pathol. 2005;18:503–10.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Xie J-J, Xu L-Y, Xie Y-M, et al. Roles of ezrin in the growth and invasiveness of esophageal squamous carcinoma cells. Int J Cancer. 2009;124:2549–58.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Elzagheid A, Korkeila E, Riyad, et al. Intense cytoplasmic ezrin immunoreactivity predicts poor survival in colorectal cancer. Hum Pathol. 2008;39:1737–43.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Mäkitie T, Carpen O, Vaheri A, et al. Ezrin as a prognostic indicator and its relationship to tumor characteristics in uveal malignant melanoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2001;42:2442–9.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang L, Gao Y, Tu Q, et al. Expression of ezrin and E-cadherin in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and its significance. Zhong Nan Da Xue Xue Bao Yi Xue Ban. 2010;35(9):969–75.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Böhling T, Turunen O, Jääskeläinen J, et al. Ezrin expression in stromal cells of capillary hemangioblastoma. An immunohistochemical survey of brain tumors. Am J Pathol. 1996;148:367–73.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Ogino W, Takeshima Y, Mori T, et al. High level of ezrin mRNA expression in an osteosarcoma biopsy sample with lung metastasis. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2007;7:435–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Andy J. Minn, Joan Massague, Invasion and metastasis. In: Devita, Hellman & Rosenberg’s Cancer: principles & practice of oncology, 8th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven; 2008. p. 118–133

  13. Takeuchi K, Sato N, Kasahara H, et al. Perturbation of cell adhesion and microvilli formation by antisense oligonucleotides to ERM family members. J Cell Biol. 1994;125:1371–84.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Liotta LA, Tryggvason K, Garbisa S, et al. Metastatic potential correlates with enzymatic degradation of basement membrane collagen. Nature. 1980;284:67–8.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Khanna C, Wan X, Bose S, et al. The membrane-cytoskeleton linker ezrin is necessary for osteosarcoma metastasis. Nat Med. 2004;10:182–6.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Wan X, Mendoza A, Khanna C, et al. Rapamycin inhibits ezrin-mediated metastatic behavior in a murine model of osteosarcoma. Cancer Res. 2005;65:2406–11.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Sarrió D, Rodríguez-Pinilla SM, et al. Abnormal ezrin localization is associated with clinicopathological features in invasive breast carcinomas. Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2006;1:71–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Ferrari S, Zanella L, et al. Prognostic significance of immunohistochemical expression of ezrin in non-metastatic high-grade osteosarcoma. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2008;50:752–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Bretscher A, Edwards K, Fehon RG. ERM proteins and merlin: Integrators at the cell cortex. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2002;3:586–99.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. Endo K, Kondo S, Shackleford J, et al. Phosphorylated ezrin is associated with EBV latent membrane protein 1 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma and induces cell migration. Oncogene. 2009;28:1725–35.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Madan R, Brandwein-Gensler M, et al. Differential tissue and subcellular expressionof ERM proteins in normal and malignant tissues: cytoplasmic ezrin expression has prognostic signficance for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Head Neck. 2006;11:1018–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Liu SJ, Sun YM, Tian DF, et al. Downregulated NM23-H1 expression is associated with intracranial invasion of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Br J Cancer. 2008;98:363–9.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (contract/grant number: 30471976) and Science and Technology Projects of Guangdong Province (contract/grant number: 2010B031600233; 2010A090200019).

Conflicts of interest

None

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China

    Liang Wang, Gui-Nan Lin, Xiang-Li Jiang & Yue Lu

  2. Department of Hematologic Oncology, Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center, 651 Dongfeng Road East, Guangzhou, 510-060, People’s Republic of China

    Liang Wang, Gui-Nan Lin, Xiang-Li Jiang & Yue Lu

Authors
  1. Liang Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Gui-Nan Lin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xiang-Li Jiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yue Lu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yue Lu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wang, L., Lin, GN., Jiang, XL. et al. Expression of ezrin correlates with poor prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Tumor Biol. 32, 707–712 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-011-0171-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-011-0171-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation