The fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) Arg388 allele correlates with survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

The increased expression of the fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) has been identified in many human cancers. Recently, a single nucleotide polymorphism changing the sense codon 388 from glycine to arginine was identified in the FGFR4 gene. The FGFR4 Arg(388) allele was found to be associated with a poor prognosis for positive node breast cancer, high-grade soft-tissue sarcoma, colon carcinoma, and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). We decided to verify the impact of the FGFR4 Arg(388) allele on survival as well as its association with histoclinical data in 75 cases of HNSCC. The FGFR4 Arg(388) allele was detected by PCR-RFLP and DNA sequencing. The FGFR4 Arg(388) allele was detected in 42.5% of the tumors (37% heterozygous Gly/Arg and 5.5% homozygous Arg/Arg). The presence of at least one Arg allele was significantly correlated with reduced overall survival after 24 months of follow-up. The cases involving the Arg allele presented an increased mortality risk of 2.2 if compared to the non-carrier cases. The FGFR4 Arg(388) allele is associated with a shortened survival.