Mammalian target of rapamycin expression and laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma prognosis: novel preliminary evidence.

Aims: The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) has a key role in regulating cancer cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell migration, and angiogenesis. The aim of this study was to assess the relationships between mTOR and clinicopathological and prognostic parameters in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Methods and results: Mammalian target of rapamycin expression was determined in 103 consecutive operable laryngeal SCCs. Among the mTOR-positive cases, the locoregional recurrence rate was higher (P = 0.048) and the disease-free survival (DFS) rate was shorter (P = 0.031) in patients with mTOR expression >50.7%. In the N0 subgroup, the disease recurrence rate was higher (P = 0.034) and the DFS was shorter (P = 0.009) in patients with mTOR expression >50.7%. In mTOR-positive patients, multivariate analysis showed that N stage (P = 0.0001) and mTOR status (P = 0.042) were independent indicators of a poor prognosis. Conclusions: mTOR appeared to be a significant predictor of DFS in univariate and multivariate models. mTOR expression in laryngeal SCC may be useful for the detection of patients at higher risk for recurrence, and N0 patients at higher risk for early locoregional recurrence who might benefit from more aggressive therapy. The role of mTOR inhibitors in multimodality or multitarget strategies against laryngeal SCC warrants investigation.