Case Control Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Jun 10, 2017; 8(3): 261-265
Published online Jun 10, 2017. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v8.i3.261
Levels of neutrophil gelatinase-assosciated lipocalin in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in Indian population from Haryana state
Monica Verma, Kiran Dahiya, Abhishek Soni, Rakesh Dhankhar, Veena S Ghalaut, Aastha Bansal, Vivek Kaushal
Monica Verma, Kiran Dahiya, Veena S Ghalaut, Aastha Bansal, Department of Biochemistry, Pt. B.D. Sharma, University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana 124001, India
Abhishek Soni, Rakesh Dhankhar, Vivek Kaushal, Department of Radiotherapy, Pt. B.D. Sharma, University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana124001, India
Author contributions: Verma M and Dahiya K designed the research, interpreted the results and drafted the manuscript; Verma M and Bansal A analyzed the samples; Soni A, Dhankhar R and Bansal A helped in statistical analysis, critical revision and final approval of the article; Ghalaut VS and Kaushal V helped in designing the results, making critical revisions and final approval of the article.
Institutional review board statement: The study was part of MD thesis of Biochemistry postgraduate student under Dr. Kiran Dahiya’s guidance. The plan of the study got approved by Institutional PG Board of studies and was found to have no ethical issues.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written constenf prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There was no conflict of interests among authors or anybody else.
Data sharing statement: No additional data is available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Kiran Dahiya, Department of Biochemistry, Pt. B.D. Sharma, University of Health Sciences, 778/28, Bharat colony, Rohtak, Haryana 124001, India. biochemistry.pgims@hry.nic.in
Telephone: +91-098-96111985
Received: January 13, 2017
Peer-review started: January 16, 2017
First decision: March 28, 2017
Revised: April 21, 2017
Accepted: May 18, 2017
Article in press: May 20, 2017
Published online: June 10, 2017
Abstract
AIM

To study the levels of neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin (NGAL) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).

METHODS

This was a non randomized case control study conducted at Department of Biochemistry, in collaboration with Regional Cancer Center over a period of one year. The study population included 50 adult newly diagnosed HNSCC patients reporting in outpatient department at Regional Cancer Center and compared with 50 healthy controls. NGAL was estimated by ELISA technique. Student t test and χ2 test were applied for comparison of means of study groups. Correlations between groups were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient (r) formula.

RESULTS

Patients with HNSCC exhibited significantly increased levels of NGAL (P < 0.05) as compared to healthy controls (978.88 ± 261.39 ng/mL vs 34.83 ± 7.59 ng/mL). Out of 50, 26 patients (52%) were in stage IV, 21 (42%) in stage III, 1 (2%) patient in stage II and 2 (4%) patients were in stage I. Metastasis was absent in 98% patients and mean NGAL levels were highest in these patients but P value was not significant. Mean NGAL levels were highest in stage IV [1041.54 ± 222.15 ng/mL (stage IV) vs 1040 ± 0.00 ng/mL (stage I); 900 ± 0.00 ng/mL (stage II) and 1031.90 ± 202.55 ng/mL (stage III)] and χ2 test was highly significant (P < 0.001). Thirty-six patients (72%) were having moderately differentiated HNSCC and mean NGAL levels were maximum in patients with well differentiated HNSCC (1164 ± 315.64 ng/mL vs 1013.33 ± 161.19 ng/mL in moderately differentiated and 890 ± 11.55 ng/mL in poorly differentiated) and the results were also highly significant (P < 0.001, χ2 test).

CONCLUSION

The present work demonstrates a potential role of NGAL as cancer biomarker and its use in monitoring the HNSCC progression.

Keywords: Neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin, Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, Metastasis, Biomarker, Lipocalin 2

Core tip: Neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin might play a significant role as a biomarker in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.