PTK7 is a molecular marker for metastasis, TNM stage, and prognosis in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma.

The prognosis of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma (OTSCC) is poor, and it would be beneficial to identify prognostic markers for optimization of treatment. Protein tyrosine kinase 7 (PTK7) is a receptor tyrosine kinase that is aberrantly expressed in human cancers. No exploration of the role of PTK7 in OTSCC has been reported. We detected expression of PTK7 protein in a set of tissue samples of OTSCC. The relationship between PTK7 expression and clinicopathologic parameters and overall survival of patients was analyzed. The expression level of PTK7 protein in OTSCC was increased relative to that in normal squamous cells. High expression of PTK7 was positively associated with TNM stage (p = 0.024), tumor differentiation (p = 0.019), and lymph node metastasis (p = 0.077). Patients with high expression of PTK7 had poor overall survival (p = 0.058). Our data indicate that PTK7 protein expression is associated with the prognosis of OTSCC and may serve as a therapeutic target.