Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck region is the sixth most frequent malignancy with high mortality rate. Due to its poor prognosis it is considered a growing public health problem worldwide inspite of existing treatment modalities. Thus, early diagnosis of new diseases and recurrences is emerging on one hand, but on the other hand troublesome in the lack of reliable tumor markers in this field. The rapid development of proteomics has opened new perspectives in tumor marker discovery. Liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) as the gold standard in proteomics enables the semi-quantitative analysis of proteins within various tissues. Abundance differences between tumor and normal tissue also can be interpreted as tumor specific changes. The aim of this study was to identify potential tumor markers of laryngeal/hypopharyngeal SCC by revealing abundance changes between cancerous and the surrounding phenotypically healthy tissue. After separating the phenotypically cancerous and healthy parts of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissues, each sample underwent protein recovery process and tryptic digestion for label-free semi-quantitative LC/MS analysis. Eight proteins showed significantly higher abundance in tumor including tenascin, transmembrane emp24 domain-containing protein 2, cytoplasmic dynein light chain 1, coactosin-like protein, small proline-rich protein 2D, nucleolin, U5 small nuclear RNP 200-kDa helicase and fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase. Desmoglein-1 and keratin type I cytoskeletal 9 were down-regulated in tumor. Using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis we mapped the signaling pathways these proteins play role in regarding other tumors. Based on these findings these proteins may serve as promising biomarkers in the fight against laryngeal/hypopharyngeal SCCs.

头颈部鳞状细胞癌（SCC）是第六大最常见的恶性肿瘤，死亡率很高。由于其不良的预后，尽管存在现有的治疗方式，它仍被认为是全球范围内日益严重的公共卫生问题。因此，一方面出现了新疾病和复发的早期诊断，但另一方面由于该领域缺乏可靠的肿瘤标记而造成麻烦。蛋白质组学的快速发展为肿瘤标志物的发现打开了新的视野。液相色谱/质谱（LC / MS）作为蛋白质组学的金标准，可以对各种组织中的蛋白质进行半定量分析。肿瘤与正常组织之间的丰度差异也可以解释为肿瘤特异性变化。这项研究的目的是通过揭示癌性组织和周围表型健康组织之间的丰度变化，来确定喉/下咽SCC的潜在肿瘤标志物。将福尔马林固定石蜡包埋的组织的表型癌变和健康部分分离后，每个样品均经过蛋白质回收过程和胰蛋白酶消化，以进行无标记的半定量LC / MS分析。八种蛋白在肿瘤中的丰度显着更高，包括肌腱蛋白，跨膜emp24结构域蛋白2，胞质达因轻链1，辅肌动蛋白样蛋白，富含脯氨酸的小蛋白2D，核仁蛋白，U5小核RNP 200-kDa解旋酶和脂肪醛脱氢酶。Desmoglein-1和I型角蛋白细胞骨架9在肿瘤中下调。使用Ingenuity Pathway Analysis，我们绘制了这些蛋白质在其他肿瘤中发挥作用的信号通路。基于这些发现，这些蛋白质可能在对抗喉/下咽SCC中充当有希望的生物标志物。