Expression And Clinical Significance Of NDRG1 In Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Objective To explore the expression of N-myc downstream regulated gene-1 (NDRG1) in nasopharyngeal carcinomas (NPC) and the relationship with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis.Methods NDRG1 was detected at its protein level by immunohistochemistry (IHC, SP method) in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded sections with a total of 100 specimens including 80 nasopharyngeal carcinoma and 20 chronic nasopharyngitis tissues. NDRG1 mRNA was detected by real time-polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR). Meanwhile, the correlations between NDRG1 and clinicopathological parameters and prognosis were observed.Results NDRG1 protein and mRNA was down regulated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma tissues, and the NDRG1 low expression rate was 73.8%(59/80). Moreover, NDRG1 expression has a significant inverse correlation with regional lymph node metastasis, pathological stage, but not with tumor stromal invasion, distant metastasis sex and age. The patients with low NDRG1 expression had a significantly shorter survival opportunity than those with high NDRG1 expression. The 5 year survival rate and progression-free survival rate with low NDRG1 protein expression was 42.3% and 26.9%, which was significantly poorer when compared with patients with high NDRG1 protein expression.Conclusions The expression of NDRG1 is low in the majority of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which was in a close relationship with lymphatic metastases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. NDRG1 could be developed as a marker contributing to diagnosis and evaluating prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma, as well as a potential therapeutic target of nasopharyngeal carcinoma.