Overexpression of GLUT-1 in the invasion front is associated with depth of oral squamous cell carcinoma and prognosis

J Oral Pathol Med (2010) 39 : 74–78
Object:  Malignant cells show increased uptake, which is considered to be facilitated by glucose transporters (GLUTs). Increased GLUT-1 expression has been reported in many human cancers. We hypothesized that a oral squamous cell carcinoma, characterized by high frequency of lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis or local recurrences, was associated with GLUT-1 overexpression in invasion front.
Methods:  GLUT-1 immunostaining in invasion front was studied on 24 oral squamous cell carcinomas, and revealed the correlation with the clinical characteristics.
Result:  The analysis showed that all oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and GLUT-1 expression correlated the depth of the tumors ( P  =   0.023 < 0.05). Furthermore the survival of patients who had overexpression of invasion front was significant shorter than that of patients with GLUT-1 weakly positive ( P  =   0.046 < 0.05). No significant association was noted between GLUT-1 immunostaining and either age, gender, subsites, tumor size, or lymph node status.
Conclusion:  The present study shows that GLUT-1 served as a marker indicating that tumors with deep invasion tended to result in a worse prognosis in patients due to either lymph node metastasis, a recurrence of the primary lesion or distant metastasis.