Approximately 90% of all head and neck tumors are squamous cell carcinomas. The overall survival of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is low (≤50%). A non-invasive marker of disease progression is sorely required. The present study focused on the plasmatic levels of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in HNSCC patients (N=92) compared with healthy (N=29) and diabetic [type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM); N=26] controls. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using antibodies against the extracellular region of EGFR (L25-S645) was performed. No significant changes were observed between diabetic and healthy controls. However, there were significantly higher EGFR plasma levels in HNSCC patients compared with both control groups (P=0.001 and 0.005, respectively). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis identified a sensitivity of 76.09%, a specificity of 67.27% and an area under curve of 0.727 for this comparison. No significant association was observed between EGFR plasma levels and tumor stage, tumor grade, lymph node or distant metastasis occurrence, smoking habit or hypertension. However, the presence of human papillomavirus infection and T2DM in HNSCC patients had borderline effect on the plasma EGFR levels. Survival analysis revealed no significant influence of plasmatic EGFR levels on the overall and disease-specific survival of HNSCC patients. In conclusion, EGFR plasma levels appear to be a relatively promising diagnostic, but poor prognostic, HNSCC marker.

Central European Institute of Technology Brno University of Technology CZ 616 00 Brno Czech Republic; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Mendel University in Brno CZ 613 00 Brno Czech Republic

Central European Institute of Technology Brno University of Technology CZ 616 00 Brno Czech Republic; Department of Pathological Physiology Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University CZ 625 00 Brno Czech Republic

Central European Institute of Technology Brno University of Technology CZ 616 00 Brno Czech Republic; Department of Physiology Faculty of Medicine Masaryk University CZ 625 00 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Mendel University in Brno CZ 613 00 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery St Anne's Faculty Hospital CZ 656 91 Brno Czech Republic

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