RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 CT Imaging Correlates of Genomic Expression for Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma
JF American Journal of Neuroradiology
JO Am. J. Neuroradiol.
FD American Society of Neuroradiology
DO 10.3174/ajnr.A3635
A1 C.R. Pickering
A1 K. Shah
A1 S. Ahmed
A1 A. Rao
A1 M.J. Frederick
A1 J. Zhang
A1 A.K. Unruh
A1 J. Wang
A1 L.E. Ginsberg
A1 A.J. Kumar
A1 J.N. Myers
A1 J.D. Hamilton
YR 2013
UL http://www.ajnr.org/content/early/2013/06/13/ajnr.A3635.abstract
AB BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Imaging correlates of genetic expression have been found for prognostic and predictive biomarkers of some malignant diseases, including breast and brain tumors. This study tests the hypothesis that imaging findings correlate with relevant genomic biomarkers in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Surplus frozen tissue from 27 untreated patients with oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma who underwent preoperative CT imaging was analyzed for gene expression. A team of neuroradiologists blinded to the genomic analysis results reviewed an extensive list of CT findings. The imaging correlated with genomic expression for cyclin D1, angiogenesis-related genes (vascular endothelial growth factor receptors and ligands), which relate to enhancement on the basis of other tumor types; and epidermal growth factor receptor, which may relate to proliferation and mass effect. RESULTS: Expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptors 1 and 2 correlated with the enhancement of the primary tumor (P = .018 and P = .025, respectively), whereas the epidermal growth factor receptor correlated with mass effect (P = .03). Other exploratory correlations included epidermal growth factor receptor to perineural invasion (P = .05), and certain vascular endothelial growth factor receptors and ligands to mass effect (P = .03) and increased (P = .01) or decreased (P = .02) primary tumor size. CONCLUSIONS: We report that CT imaging correlates with gene expression in untreated oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma. Enhancement of the primary tumor and degree of mass effect correlate with relevant genomic biomarkers, which are also potential drug targets. Eventually, treatment decisions may be aided by combining imaging findings into meaningful phenotypes that relate directly to genomic biomarkers. Abbreviations ECSextracapsular spreadEGFRepidermal growth factor receptorHPVhuman papillomavirusHUHounsfield unitOSCCoral cavity squamous cell carcinomaVEGFvascular endothelial growth factor