Prognostic implication of NOTCH1 in early stage oral squamous cell cancer with occult metastases

The objective of this study was to explore the prognostic value of cancer stem cell markers, namely CD133, NANOG, and NOTCH1, in early stage oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). One hundred forty-four patients with early stage (cT1T2N0) OSCC were identified from a pre-existing database of patients with oral cancer. We examined the impact of the immunohistochemical expression of CD133, NANOG, and NOTCH1 in OSCC. Overall survival (OS) curves were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Predictors of outcome were identified using multivariate analysis. We found that CD133, NANOG, and NOTCH1 were significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, and NOTCH1 was also significantly associated with depth of invasion and locoregional recurrence. NOTCH1 was identified as an independent prognostic factor for OS. NOTCH1 might prove to be a useful indicator for high-risk patients with occult metastases from early stage OSCC.