Effective
biomarkers predictive of the response to treatments are key for
precision medicine. This study identifies the staining pattern of the centromeric
histone 3 variant, CENP-A, as a predictive
biomarker of locoregional disease curability by chemoradiation
therapy. We compared by imaging the subnuclear distribution of CENP-A in normal and tumoral tissues, and in a retrospective study in biopsies of 62 locally advanced
head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (
HNSCC) patients treated by chemoradiation
therapy. We looked for predictive factors of locoregional disease control and patient's survival, including CENP-A patterns, Ki67, HPV status and anisokaryosis. In different normal tissues, we reproducibly found a CENP-A subnuclear pattern characterized by CENP-A clusters both localized at the nuclear periphery and regularly spaced. In corresponding
tumors, both features are lost. In locally advanced
HNSCC, a specific CENP-A pattern identified in pretreatment biopsies predicts definitive locoregional disease control after chemoradiation treatment in 96% (24/25) of patients (OR = 17.6 CI 95% [2.6; 362.8], p = 0.002), independently of anisokaryosis, Ki67 labeling or HPV status. The characteristics of the subnuclear pattern of CENP-A in cell nuclei revealed by immunohistochemistry could provide an easy to use a reliable marker of disease curability by chemoradiation
therapy in locally advanced
HNSCC patients.