Nuclear metallothionein in oral squamous cell carcinoma: clinicopathological parameters and patient survival

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the immunoexpression of methallothionein in oral squamous cell carcinoma as well as to address the correlation with clinical features, histological grade and patient survival. Samples were collected from 93 patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma who presented for follow-up. Immunohistochemical expression of methallothionein in all groups was performed. The scoring system has previously been published by Tsurutani in 2005, which is based on intensity and distribution of staining. We used Kappa index to evaluate the degree of observers' agreement under metallothionein immunostaining and histological grade. Associations between methallothionein expression and clinical parameters (age, gender, smoking, tumor size, lymph node metastasis and disease stage) were examined for statistical significance using the chi-squared test. The overall survival rates were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and the relationship between protein expression and survival was compared using the log-rank test (p < 0.05). Our results showed no statistically significant association between methallothionein immunostaining and the selected clinicopathological variables. Immunohistochemistry results showed positive nuclear immunostaining for metallothionein in 62,37% (58/93) and negative for metallothionein 37,63% (35/93). The degree of examiners agreement by Kappa varied from substantial to perfect and both metallothionein immunostaining and histological grade were explored. The present study suggests that positive methallothionein expression found in tongue squamous cell carcinoma may not help to predict survival in the analyzed samples, as well as no relation between the protein and histological grade and clinical features was observed. In conclusion, the present study suggests that metallothionein is not associated with tongue squamous cell carcinoma clinicopathological characteristics and aggressiveness.

Metallothioneins and Megalin Expression Profiling in Premalignant and Malignant Oral Squamous Epithelial Lesions

“…The results presented confirm the findings of previous studies showing MTs overexpression in OLP [ 49 , 50 ], OL [ 51 , 52 ], and OSCC [ 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ] when each of these lesions was compared with normal oral mucosa. However, in the present study, we systematically analyzed the relationship of MTs expression between premalignant lesions and different grades of OSCC ( Figure 1 and Figure 2 ; Table 1 ).…”

Significance of P16INK4A Expression and PTEN Loss of Heterozygosity in Human Papilloma Virus-related Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…This pathological entity commonly affects male individuals, such as those in the present study, belonging to an age group above 40 years and is frequently diagnosed in the sixth decade of life, which is in accordance with our results (33)(34)(35)(36)(37). Furthermore, it has been shown that the tongue and the floor of the mouth are the lesion sites in the majority of cases (23,31,34,38).…”

“…OSCC is the most common malignant neoplasm of the oral cavity (31,32). This pathological entity commonly affects male individuals, such as those in the present study, belonging to an age group above 40 years and is frequently diagnosed in the sixth decade of life, which is in accordance with our results (33)(34)(35)(36)(37).…”