Objective:To investigate the expression of Caspase-3 in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) and its relationship with cell apoptosis. Methods: The expression of Caspase-3 protein in 43 LSCC tissues and 21 vocal cord polyp tissues was detected using immunohistochemical SP method; the apoptosis of LSCC was measured by in situ end-labeling (TUNEL) assay, and the relationships between Caspase-3 expression and clinicopathological features as well as cell apoptosis in LSCC tissue were analyzed. Results:The positive rate of Caspase-3 expression in LSCC tissue was lower than in vocal cord polyp tissue dramatically, with statistical significance (51.2%vs. 85.7%,P=0.007). Caspase-3 expression in LSCC tissue was closely related to the tumor differentiated degrees, clinical staging and presence or absence of lymph node metastasis (P=0.009, 0.001, 0.018) instead of the gender, age and tumor size (P>0.05). The apoptosis index (AI) of Caspase-3 was (4.31±0.49)% in LSCC tissue, while (24.28±1.07)% in vocal cord polyp tissue. Significant difference was presented between two groups by comparison to the AI (P<0.001). Spearman correlation analysis displayed that Caspase-3 expression in LSCC tissue had a signiifcantly positive correlation with the number of positive TUNEL cells (r=0.435,P=0.000). Conclusion: Low expression of Caspase-3 protein might promote the tumorigenesis and progression by reducing the apoptosis of tumor cells, and detection to its protein can be considered as an important index for judging the differentiation, clinical staging, inifltration and metastasis of laryngeal carcinoma.
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