 ResearchImplication of heme oxygenase-1 in the sensitivity of nasopharyngeal carcinomas to radiotherapyLei Shi1  and Jun Fang2  1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, the first affiliated hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, 110001, P. R. China 2Laboratory of Microbiology & Oncology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sojo University, Kumamoto 860-0082, Japan  author email corresponding author email
Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2008,
27:13doi:10.1186/1756-9966-27-13 Abstract
High expression of the inducible isoform of heme oxygenase (HO-1) is well known in various solid tumors in human and experimental animal models. To investigate the relationship between HO-1 and nasopharyngeal carcinomas, especially its involvement in the response of nasopharyngeal carcinomas to radiotherapy, thirty-two nasopharyngeal carcinomas were semi-quantitatively analyzed by RT-PCR, and the expression of HO-1 was correlated with the consequence after novel radiotherapy, which was evaluated by the reduction of tumor size. Among 32 nasopharyngeal carcinomas, HO-1 expression was found in19 samples (59.4%), in which 9 patients (47.4%) showed no response to radiotherapy. Interestingly, in 13 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients with negative expression of HO-1, radiotherapy exhibited to be effective (9 patients, 69.2%) or responsive (3 patients, 23.1%). In this study, we first demonstrated the expression of HO-1 in nasopharyngeal carcinomas, and more important, these findings strongly suggest the potential of HO-1as a useful index in identifying patients with well response to radiotherapy, further these data indicate a new therapeutic for nasopharyngeal carcinoma by inhibiting HO-1 activity, which warrants further investigation. | 
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