PROTEOMIC PROFILES AND CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL FACTORS OF OROPHARYNGEAL CANCER IN SENEGAL.

Background: The early diagnosis of cancers around the world represents a major challenge. Among the most common cancers, those affecting the upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) are on the rise in Senegal with a very high mortality rate. To decipher the mechanisms associated with protein profile and clinicopathological parameters, we performed a correlation study of tumor samples collected from Senegalese patients. Methods: We referred to quantitative proteomics to detect protein profiles. And for explore the relationships between proteins and clinicopathological parameters, correlation analysis was performed. A correlation matrix was generated using Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: The correlative analyses allowed to identify for the gender parameter, 44 proteins statistically deregulated between men and women. Considering patient age, 23 proteins were significantly deregulated between patients under and over 50 years of age. Analysis of patients' tobacco consumption showed that 83 proteins were statistically deregulated between smokers and non-smokers. Regarding alcohol consumption, we found 28 proteins that were significantly deregulated between alcohol consumers and abstainers. Finally, quantitative analysis of tumor location showed that 76 proteins were statistically deregulated between cheek samples and all other locations Conclusion: This study highlighted numerous proteins with high prognostic value that were significantly overexpressed according to clinicopathological parameters. Some of these proteins have already been reported in other cancers; however, to the first time (to our knowledge) we have associated them with oropharyngeal cancer.l