• Lorenz Kadletz, Gregor Heiduschka, Robert Wiebringhaus, Elisabeth Gurnhofer, Ulana Kotowski, Georg Haymerle, Markus Brunner, Conor Barry, and Lukas Kenner.
• Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, A-1090, Vienna, Austria.
• Cell Oncol (Dordr). 2017 Apr 1; 40 (2): 193-198.

PurposePreviously, the engulfment and cell motility 3 (ELMO3) protein has been reported to be involved in cell migration and cytoskeletal remodeling. As of yet, nothing is known about the role of ELMO3 in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The purpose of this study was to asses ELMO3 expression in postoperatively irradiated HNSCC patients and to evaluate a possible correlation between this expression and patient survival.Methods125 postoperatively irradiated HNSCC patients were included in this study. ELMO3 expression was assessed using immunohistochemistry (IHC). The expression of ELMO3 in the respective HNSCC tumor tissues and its lymph node metastases was correlated with patient survival using Kaplan-Meier curve analyses.ResultsThrough IHC, ELMO3 expression was detected in 71.2% of the HNSCC cases tested. We found significantly increased overall and disease-free survival rates and decreased recurrence rates in patients with no detectable ELMO3 expression. In reverse, we found that ELMO3 expression served as an independent marker for a decreased overall and disease-free survival.ConclusionOur data indicate that in the surgically treated and postoperatively irradiated patients tested, ELMO3 expression serves as a predictive marker for reduced survival.

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