Prognostic value of CXCL12 and CXCR4 in inoperable head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Objective The chemokine CXCL12 and its receptor CXCR4 can affect tumor growth, recurrence, and metastasis. We tested the hypothesis that the CXCL12 and CXCR4 expression influences the prognosis of patients with inoperable head and neck cancer treated with definite radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Methods Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded pretreatment tumor tissue from 233 patients with known HPV/p16 INK4A status was analyzed. CXCL12 and CXCR4 expressions were correlated with pretreatment parameters and survival data by univariate and multivariate Cox regression. Results CXCL12 was expressed in 43.3 % and CXCR4 in 66.1 % of the samples and both were correlated with HPV/p16 INK4A positivity. A high CXCL12 expression was associated with increased overall survival ( p = 0.036), while a high CXCR4 expression was associated with decreased metastasis-free survival ( p = 0.034). Conclusion A high CXCR4 expression could be regarded as a negative prognostic factor in head and neck cancer because it may foster metastatic spread. This may recommend CXCR4 as therapeutic target for combating head and neck cancer metastasis.