Prognostic value of CD45 transcriptional expression in head and neck cancer

© 2017, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature. Introduction: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) have a recognized antitumor activity in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). CD45 is one of the most highly expressed proteins in lymphocytes. We carry out a study to assess the prognostic value of transcriptional expression of CD45 in HNSCC. Material and methods: We determined the transcriptional expression of CD45 in 160 consecutive HNSCC patients and compared the TIL values according to the CD45 expression. Results: Five-year disease-free survival for patients with a high transcriptional expression of CD45 (n = 107) was 62.4% and for patients with a low expression (n = 53) it was 36.2% (P = 0.003). Patients with a high expression of CD45 had a better local recurrence-free survival and disease-specific survival. The results of a multivariate analysis showed that patients with a low expression of CD45 had 2.0-fold high risk of recurrence (95% CI 1.2–3.2, P = 0.003). In oropharyngeal carcinomas, HPV-positive tumors showed a higher transcriptional CD45 expression than HPV-negative tumors. Tumors with high CD45 expression had immunohistochemical TIL scores significantly higher than those with low CD45 expression. Conclusion: According to our results, CD45 expression is a potential marker for tumor outcome in HNSCC patients.