Prognostic significance of immunohistochemical biomarkers in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Advances in understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) have resulted in an increasing number of biomarkers that can be used to predict the behaviour of this disease. The authors conducted a literature review of studies examining the role of immunohistochemistry-based protein biomarkers in predicting OSCC outcome. Only articles published in PubMed-indexed journals over the past 5 years were considered. 22 molecular biomarkers were identified and classified into five groups based on their biological functions: cell cycle acceleration and proliferation; tumour suppression and apoptosis; hypoxia; angiogenesis; and cell adhesion and matrix degradation. The cell cycle acceleration and proliferation biomarkers showed the most divergent prognostic findings. Studies on tumour suppression and apoptosis biomarkers were the most prevalent. There were only a few studies examining molecular biomarkers of hypoxia and angiogenesis, and studies examining cell adhesion and matrix degradation biomarkers have shown that this group has the greatest potential for assessing prognostic parameters. Amongst the several proteins analysed, the immunohistochemical expression levels of epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR), p53, and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) have demonstrated the greatest potential for survival prediction in OSCC, but this review demonstrates that their prognostic relevance is debatable and requires further standardisation.

Enterococcus faecalis Enhances Cell Proliferation through Hydrogen Peroxide-Mediated Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Activation

“…The Ki-67 protein is expressed robustly throughout all phases of the cell cycle, except for in G 0 resting cells, making Ki-67 an exceptional marker for detecting actively proliferating cells (8,53). Ki-67 was detected in cells treated under the same experimental conditions as those for the BrdU assay described above, using immunocytochemical staining to confirm cell cycle acceleration and proliferation.…”

“…Abnormal transactivation of the EGFR has been described in the development and prognosis of malignancies (36,37,53). The EGFR and its ligand, transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-␣), are commonly overexpressed in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) (36), and expression increases as oral premalignant lesions progress to invasive OSCC (13,64).…”

Presence of tumour high-endothelial venules is an independent positive prognostic factor and stratifies patients with advanced-stage oral squamous cell carcinoma

“…However, the TNM grading does not reflect the considerable biological diversity of these tumours (5). Numerous studies on potential prognostic markers to foresee the outcome and therapeutic needs of individual OSCC patients have been performed (6)(7)(8). Despite concerted efforts, none of these biomarkers are routinely used in clinical practice.…”

Evaluation of Clinical, Demographic, Pathological, and Molecular Factors with Survival Rate of Patients with Oral Squamous cell Carcinoma in Yazd city During 1998–2008

“…(16) Thus, it seemed that if different grading criteria are selected, the associations with other parameters would change as well. (31) According to the results of our study, it seems that staging based on a combination of tumor size, lymph node involvement, and distant metastasis (4) is still the main factor predicting the prognosis in patients with OSCC. A limitation of this study was that the sample characteristics and inappropriate tissue block conditions in the hospital environment affected antigen retrieval.…”

“…These conflicting results were attributed to different sample sizes, methodologies, staining methods, and calculations in another study. (31) Studies by Nylander (32) on SCC in the head and neck found no associations between p53 protein expression and apoptosis, whereas Oliviera (18) linked high p53 expression with a poor prognosis. In the present study, 83.3% of our cases expressed the Ki-67 marker weakly and only 16.7% were negative for Ki-67.…”