The human ELAV(embryonic lethal abnormal vision)-like protein HuR stabilizes a certain group of cellul ar mHNAs that contain AU- rich elements in their 3’ - untranslated region , To test the significance of HuR in carcinogenesis of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas(HNSCCs), we have investigated HuH expression from 32 benign epithelial lesions , 14 prema lignant epitheli al lesions and 80 HNSCCs, There were two different staining patterns of HuR in HNSCCs : nuclear expression was seen in 78 7% (63 of 80) 01' cases; and an additional cyto plasmic expression was seen in 28, 7%(23 of 80) 01 cases, Nuclear expression of HuR was s ignificantly increased in premalignant lesions and HNSCCs, whereas increased cytoplasπli c expression of HuR was only observed in HNSCCs Cytoplasmic HuR expression was significantly increased in pa tients of HNSCC younger than 60 yea rs , Al though there was no significant correlation between a natomic s ites of HNSCCs and HuR express ion , cyto plasmic HuR expression was highly increased in HNSCCs of larynx, There was no significant co rrela tion between HuR expression and other clinicopathological parameters such as histological type‘ tumor s ize‘ 0 1' n odal s tatus , ln conclusion, this study s uggests that overexpression of HuR in HNSCCs may be part of a regula tory pathway tha t co ntro ls the mHNA stability 0 1' several important targets in carcinogenesis of HNSCCs