Introduction. Serum amino acid (AA) profiles represent a valuable tool in the metabolic assessment of cancer patients; still, information on the AA pattern in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients is insufficient. The aim of the study was to assess whether serum AA levels were associated with the stage of neoplastic disease and prognosis in primary HNC patients. Methods. Two hundred and two primary HNC patients were included in the study. Thirty-one AAs and derivatives were measured in serum through an ultraperformance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS). The association between AA concentrations and the stage (advanced versus early) of HNC was estimated using a multivariable logistic regression model. A multivariable Cox regression model was used to evaluate the prognostic significance of each AA. Results. At the multivariable logistic regression analysis, increased levels of alpha-aminobutyric acid, aminoadipic acid, histidine, proline, and tryptophan were associated with a reduced risk of advanced stage HNC, while high levels of beta-alanine, beta-aminobutyric acid, ethanolamine, glycine, isoleucine, 4-hydroxyproline, and phenylalanine were associated with an increased risk of advanced stage HNC. Furthermore, at multivariate analysis, increased levels of alpha-aminobutyric acid were associated with increased overall survival (OS), while high levels of arginine, ethanolamine, glycine, histidine, isoleucine, 4-hydroxyproline, leucine, lysine, 3-methylhistidine, phenylalanine, and serine were associated with decreased OS. Conclusions. Our study suggests that AA levels are associated with the stage of disease and prognosis in patients with HNC. More study is necessary to evaluate if serum AA levels may be considered a hallmark of HNC and prove to be clinically useful markers of disease status and prognosis in HNC patients.

中文翻译：

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血清氨基酸在头颈癌中的预后作用

简介。血清氨基酸 (AA) 谱是癌症患者代谢评估的重要工具；尽管如此，关于头颈癌 (HNC) 患者 AA 模式的信息仍然不足。该研究的目的是评估血清 AA 水平是否与原发性 HNC 患者的肿瘤疾病分期和预后相关。方法. 该研究包括 202 名原发性 HNC 患者。通过超高效液相色谱-质谱 (UPLC-MS) 在血清中测量了 31 种氨基酸和衍生物。使用多变量逻辑回归模型估计 AA 浓度与 HNC 阶段（晚期与早期）之间的关联。多变量 Cox 回归模型用于评估每个 AA 的预后意义。结果. 在多变量逻辑回归分析中，α-氨基丁酸、氨基己二酸、组氨酸、脯氨酸和色氨酸水平升高与晚期 HNC 风险降低相关，而高水平的 β-丙氨酸、β-氨基丁酸、乙醇胺、甘氨酸、异亮氨酸、4-羟脯氨酸和苯丙氨酸与晚期 HNC 的风险增加有关。此外，在多变量分析中，α-氨基丁酸水平增加与总生存期 (OS) 增加有关，而高水平的精氨酸、乙醇胺、甘氨酸、组氨酸、异亮氨酸、4-羟脯氨酸、亮氨酸、赖氨酸、3-甲基组氨酸、苯丙氨酸，丝氨酸与 OS 降低有关。结论. 我们的研究表明，AA 水平与 HNC 患者的疾病分期和预后相关。需要更多的研究来评估血清 AA 水平是否可以被认为是 HNC 的标志，并被证明是 HNC 患者疾病状态和预后的临床有用标志物。