Diagnostic Biomarker of Metastasis for Improved Clinical Management of Head and Neck Cancer

Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck (HNSCC) is associated with poor prognosis due to the advanced stage of disease (metastasis) typically found at the time of diagnosis. Investigators at the NIH have developed a sensitive method using a protein biomarker for detecting even just a few HNSCC tumor cells in lymph nodes with occult disease. Combination of this staging technique with intraoperative sentinel lymph node mapping would improve the management of HNSCC by identifying patients for which radical lymph node dissection is most appropriate, sparing those for which it is not, and informing decisions for adjuvant cancer therapy during a single surgery.

This technology arose from the discovery that the Desmoglein-3 (DSG3) protein which is highly expressed in tumors of squamous epithelial origin, like HNSCC, is also expressed in invaded lymph nodes but it is not found in normal lymph nodes. Therefore, DSG3 can serve as a biomarker for detecting metastastatic spread of squamous cell carcinoma tumors. This is achieved by performing protein detection immunoassays to samples (biopsy, aspirate, or isolated cells) of suspect lymph nodes.