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

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).

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.

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.

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