TGFBI expression predicts the survival of patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Background/Aim: This study was conducted to investigate transforming growth factor beta-induced protein (TGFBI) expression and analyze the clinical and prognostic significance of TGFBI in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC). Patients and Methods: We evaluated TGFBI expression by immunohistochemistry in 94 patients with OPSCC. For comprehensive analysis, TGFBI expression was subdivided into tumor cell score (T), stroma score (S), and the sum of two scores (TS) calculated using H-score. Clinicopathological features and survival outcomes were compared between groups of high expression and low expression of TGFBI in each area. Results: Overall, 12 patients (12.8%) showed high T score, and 41 patients (43.6%) revealed high S score. Although T score showed no significant difference both in overall survival (OS) (p=0.080) and recurrence free survival (RFS) (p=0.272), high S score patients had significantly worse OS (p=0.003) and worse RFS (p=0.043). High TS score also showed significant association with worse OS (p=0.011) and worse RFS (p=0.021). High S score was an independent prognostic factor predicting shorter OS (HR=6.352, 95%CI=1.206- 40.050, p=0.029) and RFS (HR=18.843, 95%CI=1.030- 344.799, p=0.048) in the multivariate analysis. Conclusion: High S score of TGFBI was a significant predictor of poor prognosis in OPSCC. TGFBI could be a useful new predictive and prognostic biomarker in OPSCC.