Expression of c‐erbB‐2 protein in keratinocytes of oral mucosal lichen planus and subsequent squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Oral mucosal lichen planus (OMLP) is a well recognized mucosal disease with unknown etiology. Considerable controversy exists as to whether OMLP is intrinsically premalignant, or if the disorder facilitates the development of oral mucosal squamous cell carcinoma (OMSCC) by external factors. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression of c-erbB-2 protein in the keratinocytes of initial biopsies or oral mucosal disorders diagnosed as OMLP with no evidence of epithelial dysplasia, and to compare the results with the expression of c-erbB-2 protein in subsequent biopsies obtained from the same patients. These results were compared with the findings from control groups (patients with dysplasia with no evidence of OMLP, patients with OMSCC with no evidence of OMLP and normal oral mucosa). The expression of the c-erbB-2 protein was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining of the gene product with the avidin-biotin-complex method using paraffin-embedded tissues sections. Five of the initial biopsies from patients with OMLP expressed the c-erbB-2 protein and one did not. None of the OMLP cases that subsequently showed evidence of dysplasia expressed the c-erbB-2 protein, and of the three OMSCC specimens from the patients with OMLP, two were negative and one expressed c-erbB-2 protein. The specimens from the control groups all expressed the c-erbB-2 protein. The results indicated the probability of the absence of c-erbB-2 staining being an indication of a potential for neoplastic transformation in OMLP with dysplastic changes.

Chromosomal Numerical Aberrations in Oral Lichen Planus

“…To uncover some of the molecular genetic aberrations associated with OLP, investigators have used molecular and genetic methods such as loss of heterozygosity (LOH) (Zhang et al, 2000), chromosome in situ hybridization (Kim et al, 2001), p53 and c-erbB2 expression (Girod et al, 1994(Girod et al, , 1995Kilpi et al, 1996;Ogmundsdottir et al, 2002), and telomerase activity (O'Flatharta et al, 2002). However, none of these methods appears to provide definitive predictive information with regard to the malignant potential of a lesion diagnosed as OLP.…”

Oral lichen planus is a unique disease model for studying chronic inflammation and oral cancer

“…The generally accepted statement lies in that both malignant and host cells have been shown to produce cytokine networks and induce DNA damage, cell growth and immortalization, angiogenesis, invasion and metastasis [11]. Although numerous investigations have begun to identify genetic and protein aberrations within OLP, few of them were focused on the progression of OLP to oral cancer [12, 13]. Since only a few percent of the patients with OLP progress to oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), we do not know whether these molecular alterations within OLP have significant role in malignant transformation.…”

Her-2 Immunohistochemical Expression in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinomas is Associated with Polysomy of Chromosome 17, Not Her-2 Amplification

“…Positive correlations have been found with variables, such as stage, metastasis, or overall survival in some [8-10, 14, 20, 22, 27-29], but not all of the studies [6,11,13,14,17,19,24], while simultaneous expression of multiple ERBB receptors has been suggested as a better indicator of decreased survival [8,10]. Loss of Her-2 immunostaining has been considered as an indicator of neoplastic transformation potential in premalignant lesions [18,[30][31][32], although there are reports to the contrary [32,33].…”