Keratins 17 and 19 expression as prognostic markers in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Five-year survival rates for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are 30% and the mortality rate is 50%. Immunohistochemistry panels are used to evaluate proliferation, vascularization, apoptosis, HPV infection, and keratin expression, which are important markers of malignant progression. Keratins are a family of intermediate filaments predominantly expressed in epithelial cells and have an essential role in mechanical support and cytoskeleton formation, which is essential for the structural integrity and stability of the cell. In this study, we analyzed the expressions of keratins 17 and 19 (K17 and K19) by immunohistochemistry in tumoral and non-tumoral tissues from patients with OSCC. The results show that expression of these keratins is higher in tumor tissues compared to non-tumor tissues. Positive K17 expression correlates with lymph node metastasis and multivariate analysis confirmed this relationship, revealing a 6-fold increase in lymph node metastasis when K17 is expressed. We observed a correlation between K17 expression with disease-free survival and disease-specific death in patients who received surgery and radiotherapy. Multivariate analysis revealed that low expression of K17 was an independent marker for early disease relapse and disease-specific death in patients treated with surgery and radiotherapy, with an approximately 4-fold increased risk when compared to high K17 expression. Our results suggest a potential role for K17 and K19 expression profiles as tumor prognostic markers in OSCC patients.

Diagnostic Value of Cytokeratin 17 during Oral Carcinogenesis: An Immunohistochemical Study

“…Further analysis by immunohistochemical technique revealed that CK17 was found in 100% of 39 OSCC tissue samples, whereas no staining was detected in normal oral mucosal tissue adjacent to cancerous tissue. Consistent with our study, several studies have demonstrated overexpression of CK17 both at gene and protein levels in OSCC compared with adjacent normal oral mucosa [ 3 , 6 – 10 ]. These results indicate that CK17 is an essential cytokeratin for OSCC and CK17 may be a good candidate to diagnose OSCC.…”

Phenotypic characterization of oral mucosa: what is normal?

“…However, previous observations summarized by Presland and Dale support our findings and indicate that keratin 8 may be present in normal gingiva, especially in the junctional part of epithelium. Similarly, detection of keratins 17–19 can have some diagnostic relevance in study of oral epithelium dysplasia . However, it should be noted that basal expression of keratin 19 is also physiological in oral epithelium .…”

Keratin 17 in disease pathogenesis: from cancer to dermatoses

“…In neoplastic conditions, K17 is expressed in cervical carcinoma, breast carcinoma, gastric carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) . In the cervix, K17 immunohistochemistry showed stronger expression in SCC and high‐grade squamous intraepithelial lesions than in normal squamous mucosa and low‐grade squamous intraepithelial lesions, suggesting K17 as a diagnostic marker to distinguish malignant cervical lesions from non‐malignant lesions or normal mucosa .…”