Expression of lumican and fibromodulin in oral squamous cell carcinoma and their influence on prognosis

[Objective:] To investigate the expression levels of lumican (LUM) and fibromodulin (FMOD) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissues, and their correlation with the prognosis of OSCC patients. [Methods:] A total of 30 fresh OSCC tissues and 30 normal tissues were detected by Western blotting and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). The 50 paraffin-embedded samples of OSCC and 9 paraffin-embedded samples of normal oral mucosa were detected by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The correlation of LUM and FMOD expressions in OSCC tissues was analyzed by Spearman correlation analysis. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis. Cox regression model was used for multivariate analysis. [Results:] The protein and mRNA expression levels of LUM and FMOD in the OSCC tissue were significantly higher than those in the normal tissues (P<0.001). However, there was no difference in the protein and mRNA levels of both LUM and FMOD in OSCC tissues of different degrees of differentiation (P>0.05). IHC results suggested significantly increased expression of LUM and FMOD in OSCC tissues, which were correlated with both tumor clinical staging (P<0.001) and lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). Spearman correlation analysis showed a significant correlation between the expression of LUM and FMOD in OSCC tissues. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that overall survival rate (OS) and tumor-specific survival rate (TSS) of patients with high LUM and FMOD expression levels were lower than those of patients with low expression levels. The Cox regression model showed that the expression of LUM and FMOD and clinical staging can be used as independent factors for predicting the prognosis of OSCC patients. [Conclusion:] The expressions of LUM and FMOD in OSCC are significantly increased, which may play a promoting role in the development of OSCC and suggest the prognosis of patients with OSCC.