2,3-Pyridinedicarboxylate Is Associated with Shorter Recurrence-Free Survival in Patients with Hypopharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

UNLABELLED: <p>

Introduction

Metabolites are associated with the biology of cancer; however, no metabolites related to prognosis have been identified in head and neck cancer. This study aimed to identify metabolites associated with prognosis in patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPSCC).

METHODS

Fifty-two patients who underwent surgery for HPSCC were included and randomly divided into test and validation cohorts of 26 patients each for further metabolome analysis using capillary electrophoresis/mass spectrometry on tumor and non-tumor tissues of the hypopharynx. Twenty-two patients who received adjuvant therapy after surgery were included. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and univariate and multivariate analyses were used to explore the relationship between recurrence-free survival (RFS), clinicopathological factors, and differentiated metabolites.

RESULTS

ROC analysis revealed six metabolites significantly associated with RFS in both cohorts, and multivariate analysis indicated that 2,3-pyridinedicarboxylate was a significantly independent poorer prognostic factor in the cohorts including patients with HPSCC without any adjuvant therapies (p = 0.017).

CONCLUSION

2,3-Pyridinedicarboxylate, involved in NAD+ metabolism and genomic stability, suggests the possibility of developing molecular-targeted drugs for the production of metabolites related to prognosis. This study identifies novel prognostic metabolites and their associated metabolic pathways in HPSCC, highlighting potential therapeutic targets for treatment. </p>.