Gene-Expression Patterns of Tumor and Peritumor Tissues of Smoking and Non-Smoking HPV-Negative Patients with Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

We studied the gene-expression patterns in specimens of tumor and peritumor tissue biopsies of 26 patients with head and neck carcinomas depending on smoking status. Histological and immunohistochemical examinations verified that all tumors belonged to the “classical” subgroup of head and neck carcinomas, and the HPV-negative tumor status was confirmed. The expression of 28 tumor-associated genes determined by RT-PCR was independent of patients’ sex or age, TNM status, degree of differentiation, or tissue localization. Moreover, in peritumor tissue, none of the 28 genes were differentially expressed between the groups of smoking and nonsmoking patients. During oncotransformation in both studied groups, there were similar processes typical for HNSCC progression: the expression levels of paired keratins 4 and 13 were reduced, while the expression levels of keratin 17 and CD44 were significantly increased. However, further investigation revealed some distinctive features: the expression of the genes EGFR and TP63 increased significantly only in the nonsmoking group, and the expression of IL6, CDKN2A, EGF, and PITX1 genes changed only in the smoking group. In addition, correlation analysis identified several clusters within which genes displayed correlations in their expression levels. The largest group included 10 genes: TIMP1, TIMP2, WEE1, YAP, HIF1A, PI3KCA, UTP14A, APIP, PTEN, and SLC26A6. The genetic signatures associated with smoking habits that we have found may serve as a prerequisite for the development of diagnostic panels/tests predicting responses to different therapeutic strategies for HNSCC. © 2024 by the authors.