LncRNAs are involved in the initiation and progression of cancer. However, the molecular mechanism and diverse clinical prognosis of MIR31HG in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are still unclear. Our previous microarray analysis showed that lncRNA MIR31HG interacted with HIF1A may play an oncogenic role in laryngeal squamous cell cancer (LSCC). To determine whether lncRNA MIR31HG served as a poor prognosis factor and targeted HIF1A to facilitate cell proliferation and tumorigenesis in human HNSCC, we found MIR31HG and HIF1A were overexpressed in LSCC, MIR31HG overexpression or co-expression of HIF1A-positive and p21-negative could serve as a poor prognostic factor for LSCC patients. We further confirmed that MIR31HG promoted cell proliferation, cell cycle progression, and inhibited cell apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. The ingenuity pathway analysis and Western blot indicated that MIR31HG regulated cell cycle progression via HIF1A and p21 in HNSCC. The current results provide evidences for the role of MIR31HG in promoting HNSCC progression and identify MIR31HG as a prognostic biomarker and putative therapeutic target in HNSCC.

Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plays an important role in tumorigenesis. However, the expression pattern and function of lncRNAs in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) are still unclear. To investigate the aberrantly expressed lncRNAs and mRNAs in advanced LSCC, we screened lncRNA and mRNA expression profiles in 9 pairs of primary Stage IVA LSCC tissues and adjacent non-neoplastic tissues by lncRNA and mRNA integrated microarrays. Gene Ontology and pathway analysis were performed to find out the significant function and pathway of the differentially expressed mRNAs, gene-gene functional interaction network and ceRNA network were constructed to select core mRNAs, and lncRNA-mRNA expression correlation network was built to identify the interactions between lncRNA and mRNA. qRT-PCR was performed to further validate the expressions of selected lncRNAs and mRNAs in advanced LSCC. We found 1459 differentially expressed lncRNAs and 2381 differentially expressed mRNAs, including 846 up-regulated lncRNAs and 613 down-regulated lncRNAs, 1542 up-regulated mRNAs and 839 down-regulated mRNAs. The mRNAs ITGB1, HIF1A, and DDIT4 were selected as core mRNAs, which are mainly involved in biological processes, such as matrix organization, cell cycle, adhesion, and metabolic pathway. LncRNA-mRNA expression correlation network showed LncRNA NR_027340, MIR31HG were positively correlated with ITGB1, HIF1A respectively. LncRNA SOX2-OT was negatively correlated with DDIT4. qRT-PCR further validated the expression of these lncRNAs and mRNAs. The work provides convincing evidence that the identified lncRNAs and mRNAs are potential biomarkers in advanced LSCC for further future studies.

Background: Considerable modifications have been introduced in the new edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer/Union for International Cancer Control (AJCC/UICC) TNM staging system. Based on the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, this study aimed to compare the 7th and 8th editions of the AJCC/UICC TNM staging system for patients with papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) and follicular variant papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (FVPTMC). Methods: A Data from 2004 to 2014 of 39,032 patients registered in the SEER database were included. The 7th and 8th editions of the AJCC/UICC staging system were compared in terms of TNM staging, age cutoff, and clinical staging. Patient survival was evaluated using Kaplan-Meier and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. The American Thyroid Association (ATA) risk stratification system was integrated with the AJCC/UICC staging system for further investigation. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, Harrell's C-index, Akaike information criterion (AIC), and the Bayesian information criterion (BIC) were used to assess the models' performances. Results: Revised TNM categories, age cutoff, and clinical staging in the 8th edition resulted in reclassification of the overall stage. Applying the 8th edition, 1,278 stage III and 425 stage IV patients were reclassified as stage I; 950 stage III and 459 stage IV patients were reclassified as stage II; 77 stage IV patients were reclassified as stage III; and only 88 patients remained in stage IV. All patients in stage I, according to the 7th edition, remained in this stage when using the 8th edition. Patients classified into higher stages (III and IV) in the 8th edition showed a worse prognosis than those classified into same stages in the 7th edition. The 8th edition proved to be a better model with higher prognostic efficacy survival (higher AUC and C-index, lower AIC and BIC) than the 7th edition. When integrated with the ATA risk stratification system, the 8th edition still showed better discriminative power for patients in the higher risk group. Conclusion: Based on the SEER database, the 8th edition of the AJCC/UICC staging system has better prognostic efficacy than the 7th edition for patients with PTMC and FVPTMC.

Solute carrier family 7, membrane 11 (SLC7A11) or (xCT) is a component of the cysteine-glutamate transporter, which plays a critical role in glutathione homeostasis which is important to protect cells from oxidative stress. SLC7A11 is distributed in various tissues and participates in the occurrence of a number of diseases, particularly in the pathogenesis of malignant tumors, but its role in laryngeal cancer development has not yet been clearly defined. The objective of the present study was to investigate the role of SLC7A11 in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC). We conducted immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR to evaluate the protein and mRNA levels of SLC7A11 in LSCC and in control tissues, respectively. The knockdown experiments were conducted with SLC7A11 short hairpin RNA (shRNA) lentivirus, and the protein and mRNA levels of SLC7A11 were assessed by RT-PCR and western blotting. The functional study of SLC7A11 in vitro was conducted by MTT assay, and the effects on the cell cycle were detected using flow cytometry. Immunohistochemical results revealed that the expression levels of SLC7A11, Ki-67 and p53 in LSCC tissues were higher than those in laryngeal dysplasia tissues. The Spearman rank correlation analysis revealed that the expression of SLC7A11 was positively correlated with the expression of p53 and Ki-67. Cox regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier plots confirmed that the expression levels of SLC7A11 were a prognostic factor for overall survival (OS) rates and postoperative recurrence of LSCC. Moreover, the functional study of SLC7A11 in vitro revealed that knockdown of SLC7A11 using shRNA inhibited cell proliferation by inducing cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase. Immunohistochemical and RT-PCR results and knockdown experiments of SLC7A11 revealed that SLC7A11 was involved in the progression of LSCC, and may provide clinical information for the evaluation of OS rates and postoperative recurrence of LSCC. Collectively, these observations suggest that SLC7A11 may be a vital biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis in human LSCC, and targeting SLC7A11 appears to be a potentially significant method for LSCC treatment.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma are one of the most common types of cancer worldwide. Although a variety of treatment methods such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy are widely used in diagnosing and treating HNSCC, the survival prognosis of patients has not been significantly improved in the past decades. As an emerging treatment approach, immunotherapy has shown exciting therapeutic effects in R/M HNSCC. However, the current screening methods are still insufficient, and there is a significant need for reliable predictive biomarkers for personalized clinical management and new therapeutic strategies. This review summarized the application of immunotherapy in HNSCC, comprehensively analyzed the existing bioinformatic studies on immunotherapy in HNSCC, evaluated the current methods of tumor immune heterogeneity and immunotherapy, and aimed to screen molecular markers with potential predictive significance. Among them, PD-1 has obvious predictive relevance as the target of existing immune drugs. Clonal TMB is a potential biomarker for HNSCC immunotherapy. The other molecules, including IFN-γ, CXCL, CTLA-4, MTAP, SFR4/CPXM1/COL5A1, TILs, CAFs, exosomes, and peripheral blood indicators, may have suggestive significance for tumor immune microenvironment and prognosis of immunotherapy.