Erythropoietin receptor is not a surrogate marker for tumor hypoxia and does not correlate with survival in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas

EPOR expression was demonstrated in the majority of the head and neck tumors. No colocalization was found between EPOR expression and pimonidazole binding indicating that the presence or absence of hypoxia did not necessarily indicate a distinct pattern of EPOR expression. The level of EPOR expression was not of prognostic significance in patients with head and neck cancer, although small effects of EPOR cannot be excluded because of the sample size of this study.