ORIGINAL ARTICLE TUMOR-SPECIFIC GENETIC EXPRESSION PROFILE OF METASTATIC ORAL SQUAMOUS CELL CARCINOMA

Abstract: Background. Metastasis is the most important pre-dictor of survival in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). We tested the hypothesis that there is a genetic expres-sion profile associated with OSCC metastasis. Methods. We obtained samples from 6 OSCC node-positive primary tumors and their matched metastatic lymph nodes, and 5 OSCC node-negative primary tumors. Using laser capture microdissection, we isolated OSCC cells from metastatic lymph nodes and compared them with those from matched primary tumors and unmatched node-negative primary tumors using Affymetrix Human Genome Focus arrays. Results. Comparison of tumor cells from the lymph nodes with those from the unmatched, node-negative primary tumors revealed differential expression of 160 genes. Hierarchical clus-tering and principal component analysis using this 160-gene se