Expression of E-cadherin adhesion molecule in vocal cord carcinomas.

E-cadherin is a 120 kDa transmembrane protein that plays a major role in the maintenance of cell-cell adhesion in epithelial tissues. In the present study its expression was examined immunohistochemically for the first time using paraffin-embedded archival tissues of 38 vocal cord carcinomas. Ten cases of vocal cord polyps were used as positive controls. According to our criteria, results showed that all but one of the polyps, in which staining was lost, had strong or moderate E-cadherin expression, whereas 32% of the cases with tumors showed preserved staining, and 68% of cases showed a reduced staining. E-cadherin expression was significantly correlated with histological stages, with a greater expression in carcinoma in situ and microinvasive carcinoma than in invasive carcinoma (P = 0.010). A significant correlation was also found between E-cadherin expression and the degree of tumor differentiation (P = 0.018). Some of these findings were consistent with previously published data using fresh tissues. Our study provides evidence that E-cadherin may be linked to progression and differentiation of laryngeal cancer and could play a role as a tumor-suppressor gene in this cancer.