Clinical value of serum HMGB1 in diagnosis and prognosis of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is one of the most common malignancies in the head and neck region. Recently, aberrantly expressed high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) has received a great deal of attention as a potential biomarker for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate HMGB1 levels in serum in LSCC patients and healthy controls and evaluated the potential of serum HMGB1 as a noninvasive biomarker for diagnosis and prognosis in LSCC. Serum HMGB1 levels were analyzed in 71 LSCC patients and 50 healthy controls. The serum HMGB1 level was significantly higher in LSCC patients compared with the healthy controls (4.81 ± 2.33 vs. 3.21 ± 1.08 ng/mL, P < 0.001). High serum HMGB1 was significantly associated with T classification (P = 0.005), N classification (P = 0.002), and clinical stage (P = 0.001). The area under ROC curve was 0.716, and the sensitivity and specificity were 42.3 and 92.0 %, respectively. The Kaplan–Meier plots showed that patients with high serum HMGB1 had a poorer overall survival than those with low serum HMGB1 (P = 0.036). Serum HMGB1 levels are significantly associated with the progression of LSCC. In this population, HMGB1 has a poor sensitivity, but a high specificity for the diagnosis of LSCC. Serum HMGB1 level has potential as a biomarker for the prognosis in LSCC patients.