Biomarkers in Tissue Samples From Patients Who Have Undergone Neck Dissection for Oral Cancer

Molecular Mechanisms of OSCC Tumor Invasion

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tumor tissue from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about changes that occur in DNA and identify biomarkers related to cancer.

PURPOSE: This research study is looking at tissue samples in predicting oral cancer in patients who have undergone neck dissection for oral cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• To test preliminary data from node-positive oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) signatures for their ability to predict lymph-positive primaries using a cohort of OSCC tumors.
• To perform lymph node prediction using sentinel lymph node-biopsied primaries.
• To validate the preliminary data node-positive OSCC signature and test its ability to predict nodal status.

OUTLINE: Patient tissue samples are screened using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for human papilloma virus-specific primers. Samples are analyzed to identify a nodal-metastasis signature for oral squamous cell carcinoma. Samples also undergo microarray analysis to quantify expression levels for targeted genes. Initial data analysis is performed using Affymetrix® Microarray Suite 5.0 to quantify expression levels for targeted genes.

• Have a primary tumor specimen banked by the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group (ACOSOG) as part of clinical trial ACOSOG-Z0360

  * All tumor specimens are squamous cell carcinomas of the tongue, floor of the mouth, or gingiva

• All patients have undergone neck dissections * Pathologically confirmed nodal stage (negative or positive)