The prognostication of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is largely based upon the tumor size and location and the presence of lymph node metastases. Here we show that gene expression patterns from 60 HNSCC samples assayed on cDNA microarrays allowed categorization of these tumors into four distinct subtypes. These subtypes showed statistically significant differences in recurrence-free survival and included a subtype with a possible EGFR-pathway signature, a mesenchymal-enriched subtype, a normal epithelium-like subtype, and a subtype with high levels of antioxidant enzymes. Supervised analyses to predict lymph node metastasis status were approximately 80% accurate when tumor subsite and pathological node status were considered simultaneously. This work represents an important step toward the identification of clinically significant biomarkers for HNSCC.

中文翻译：

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使用基因表达模式对头颈部鳞状细胞癌进行分子分类。

头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HNSCC）的预后很大程度上取决于肿瘤的大小和位置以及淋巴结转移的存在。在这里，我们显示了在cDNA微阵列上分析的来自60个HNSCC样品的基因表达模式，可以将这些肿瘤分为四个不同的亚型。这些亚型在无复发生存中显示出统计学上的显着差异，包括具有可能的EGFR信号通路特征的亚型，间充质富集的亚型，正常的上皮样亚型和具有高水平抗氧化酶的亚型。当同时考虑肿瘤亚部位和病理结节状态时，监督分析可预测淋巴结转移状态的准确率约为80％。