In 2014, more than 40,000 people in the United States will be diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) and nearly 8400 people will die of the disease (www.cancer.org/acs/groups). Little is known regarding molecular targets that might lead to better therapies and improved outcomes for these patients. The incorporation of taxanes into the standard cisplatin/5-fluouracil initial chemotherapy for HNSCC has been associated with improved response rate and survival. Taxanes target the β-subunit of the tubulin heterodimers, the major protein in microtubules, and halt cell division at G2/M phase. Both laboratory and clinical research suggest a link between β-tubulin expression and cancer patient survival, indicating that patterns of expression for β-tubulin isotypes along with activity of tumor suppressors such as p53 or micro-RNAs could be useful prognostic biomarkers and could suggest therapeutic targets. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keywords: HNSCC; TUBB3; p53; tubulin; tubulin isotypes.
© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.