Periostin acts as an oncogene to promote laryngeal cancer progression by activating decorin.

Laryngeal carcinoma (LC) is the second most common malignancy of the head and neck worldwide, with increasing incidence every year. However, the mechanism of its development is not completely clear. Periostin (POSTN) has been reported to be involved in various aspects of tumorigenesis. To determine the influence of POSTN on LC tumorigenesis, we first examined the expression of POSTN in tissues from patients with LC through immunohistochemistry, western blot, and qRT-PCR. Besides, we demonstrated that POSTN promoted LC cell migration, invasion, and proliferation <i>in vitro</i> by CCK-8, colony formation, and Transwell assays, and tumor growth <i>in vivo</i> by immunohistochemistry. Furthermore, the interaction between POSTN and decorin (DCN) was further verified by bioinformatics analysis and immunoprecipitation (IP), finding that POSTN promoted the malignant progression of LC by targeting DCN. Our findings support the idea that the level of POSTN expression and accumulation in tumors correlated with the malignancy degree of LC, suggesting that POSTN may play a potential role in improving laryngeal cancer treatment strategies.