Circulating Endocan Levels as a New Biomarker of Oral Cancer

Objectives: In Taiwan, oral cancer is the fourth most common cancer and the most common malignancy with a poor prognosis. Endocan is secreted by vascular endothelial cells in the liver, lungs, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract. Endocan expression is associated with tumor prognosis, metastasis, and angiogenesis in many cancers. However, few studies have examined the association of plasma endocan levels with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) progression.
Methods: The plasma endocan levels of 438 male OSCC patients through a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were measured. The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) dataset was also used to analyze the endocan levels in 328 OSCC patients and 33 normal tissues.
Results: Our results revealed that the plasma levels of endocan in OSCC patients were significantly associated with the tumor (T) status but not with the lymph node status, metastasis, and cell differentiation. TCGA bioinformatics database analysis revealed that endocan expression was significantly higher in OSCC patients than in normal individuals (p < 0.05). In addition, the examination revealed similar results for the endocan expression levels and pathological stage in OSCC.
Conclusions: The plasma endocan is a novel biomarker for predicting the T status in OSCC patients.