Association Between PIC3KA and CRNDE Gene Expression and HPV Involvement With Risk Factors and Clinical Characteristics of HNSCC Patients

Introduction: Head and Neck Squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the sixth common cancer worldwide. An important feature of HNSCC is its poor prognosis. Factors such as smoking and alcohol consumption, HPV infection and genetic factors play a role in HNSCC pathogenesis. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between PIC3KA and CRNDE gene expression levels and HPV involvement with risk factors and clinical characteristics of patients. Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, the expression of PIC3KA and CRNDE genes in the tumor tissues and adjacent non-cancerous tissues of 50 HNSCC patients were evaluated by Real-Time PCR. Also, HPV infection was evaluated by Reverse Line Blot method. Finally, the association of these two parameters with the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients was statistically evaluated. Ethical Considerations: This study was registered with the Ethics Committee of Tehran University of Medical Sciences under code IR.TUMS.DENTISTRY.REC.1397.021. Results: The results of the present study showed that the expression of CRNDE (P = 0.0005) and PIK3CA (P = 0.0322) genes in tumor tissue had a significant increase compared to adjacent non-cancerous tissue. Increased PIK3CA expression was significantly associated with smoking, location, stage, size, and grade of the tumor, whereas increased CRNDE expression was associated with alcohol consumption and lymph node involvement. It was also found that HPV infection was associated with larger tumor size and more advanced stage (P = 0.02). Conclusions: Considering the association of PIK3CA expression with parameters such as stage, size and grade of the tumor, it can be concluded that the expression of these two genes is involved in the progression of HNSCC disease. In addition, according to the present results, HPV infection is also associated with disease progression.