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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Head and Neck Cancer
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2024.1438021

EZH2: An analysis of a potential new tumor marker in high-risk localization of cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas

Provisionally accepted
Cristian-Viktor Valea Cristian-Viktor Valea 1,2*Maurice Klein Maurice Klein 3*Christian Hallermann Christian Hallermann 4Hans-Joachim Schulze Hans-Joachim Schulze 5*Jan-Dirk Raguse Jan-Dirk Raguse 6*Kai Wermker Kai Wermker 2,7*
  • 1 Alldent Dental Center GmbH, Leipzig, Lower Saxony, Germany
  • 2 University of Münster, Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • 3 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
  • 4 Laboratory of Dermatopathology and Pathology Hamburg-Niendorf, Hamburg, Germany
  • 5 Department of Dermatology and Histopathology, Hornheide Specialist Clinic, Münster, Bremen, Germany
  • 6 Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hornheide Specialist Clinic, Münster, Bremen, Germany
  • 7 Department of Oral & Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, Klinikum Osnabrueck GmbH, Osnabrück, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) is a transcriptional enzyme implicated in tumor development and is often correlated to poor patient outcomes in various malignancies. The study evaluated various methods for EZH2 expression in lip and ear squamous cell carcinomas (LSCC, ESCC) by matching patients with and without lymph node metastasis (LNM) and further analysis of clinical outcome parameters. EZH2 inhibition therapy has shown promising results in multiple cancer entities, with ongoing research exploring its potential in other malignancies. This approach may also be applicable to high-risk LSCC and ESCC. Methods: A total of 122 patients who had been surgically treated for LSCC and ESCC were selected to form LNM-positive and LNM-negative matched pairs. EZH2 expression has been examined after immunostaining of the tumor tissue with EZH2-antibodies and quantified as extent, intensity, and score. Pursuing the clinical benefit, we analyzed three different EZH2-score approaches to determine aberrations in EZH2 expression. Results: While the overall EZH2 extent did not correlate with clinical outcome, the EZH2-intensity and -score was lower in patients who developed a local relapse or distant metastasis (DM). High EZH2-scores correlated with increasing grading, pN-, and American Joint Committee on Cancer-stage. Overall, the carcinoma tissue samples showed a high expression of EZH2 (mean expression > 60%). Conclusion: The hypothesis of the predictive prognostic contribution of EZH2 in clinical decisions regarding the occurrence of LNM was not substantiated by our data. Nevertheless, the elevated expression of EZH2 we have observed in our findings could be utilized as a pretherapeutic assessment prior to targeted therapies with tazemetostat. Subsequent research should substantiate this hypothesis.

    Keywords: EZH21, prognostic factor2, biomarker3, Lymph node metastasis4, tumor marker5, SCC6, squamous cell carcinoma7 Words: 8571; Figures: 9

    Received: 24 May 2024; Accepted: 19 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Valea, Klein, Hallermann, Schulze, Raguse and Wermker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Cristian-Viktor Valea, Alldent Dental Center GmbH, Leipzig, 80335, Lower Saxony, Germany
    Maurice Klein, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Aachen, 52074, Germany
    Hans-Joachim Schulze, Department of Dermatology and Histopathology, Hornheide Specialist Clinic, Münster, 48157, Bremen, Germany
    Jan-Dirk Raguse, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hornheide Specialist Clinic, Münster, 48157, Bremen, Germany
    Kai Wermker, University of Münster, Münster, 48149, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

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