Cathepsin K associates with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma

BMC Cancer

Table 3 Correlations between gene (mRNA) and protein (IHC) expression of CTSK and clinical and pathological parameters of the included OSCC cohort (n = 83)

		CTSK
	mRNA	IHC tumor	IHC stroma
Clinical characteristic
Smoking history	NS	NS	NS
Alcohol consumption	p < 0.01	NS	NS
Age	NS	NS	NS
cT status	NS	NS	NS
cN status	NS	NS	NS
Subsite	NS	NS	NS
Pathological characteristic
pN-status	p < 0.01	p < 0.01	p < 0.01
pT-status	NS	NS	NS
Infiltration depth	NS	NS	NS
Differentiation grade	NS	NS	NS
Vaso-invasion	p < 0.01	NS	NS
Bone-invasion	NS	NS	NS
Peri-neural invasion	p < 0.01	p < 0.01	NS
Spidery growth	NS	NS	NS

Cases were stratified according to clinical and pathological characteristics. Smoking history was dichotomized to current smoker or ceased < 1 year versus ex-smoker (ceased > 1 year) and never smoker. Alcohol consumption was dichotomized to 1–4 or ≥ 5 U/day versus occasionally or never. Clinical and pathological nodal status (cN and pN) were dichotomized to cN0 versus cN+ and to pN0 versus pN+. Infiltration was dichotomized to < 4 mm versus ≥4 mm. Differentiation was dichotomized to well and moderate versus poor and undifferentiated. P-values represent the Mann-Whitney U test of these comparisons. IHC: immunohistochemistry; mRNA: messenger ribonucleic acid; NS: non-significant

ISSN: 1471-2407