Serum big endothelin-1 as a biomarker in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients: an analytical study

Abstract

Detection of abnormally elevated levels of molecules in patients with oral cancer may be useful in early diagnosis. These markers can be included in current Histopathology grading and in TNM staging systems of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) to make it more efficient. Several pro-angiogenic molecules have been assessed for the same reason. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a vasoactive peptide associated with the development and spread of many solid tumors, including Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC), but its utility in OSCC has not been confirmed. Objective This study aims to evaluate the role of the serum big ET-1 as a biomarker of OSCC, by correlating it with the clinical staging and the histopathological grading.Material and Methods Serum levels of big ET-1 measured by the sandwich Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) in 40 OSCC cases were compared with the levels from the control group using independent t-test. Clinical stages and histopathological grades of OSCC cases were compared in relation to their mean levels of serum big ET-1, one using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test and the other the independent t-test, respectively. The significance of the mean difference between the groups was evaluated by Tukey’s multiple comparison test. All statistical analyses were performed on GraphPad statistical software version 5.0.Results By comparing the mean of the big ET-1 concentrations of cases and controls, the independent t-test revealed significant higher big ET-1 concentration of OSCC cases when compared to controls (p<0.0001). Tukey’s multiple comparison test also revealed statistically significant difference among all OSCC stages in relation to the mean levels of serum big ET-1. However, the mean of the big ET-1 concentrations of cases of grade I and of grade II did not differ statistically (p=0.729).Conclusion Serum big ET-1 levels may be useful as a diagnostic tool in OSCC and as an adjunct to OSCC staging. However, its use as a prognostic marker warrants larger prospective studies.

ECE‐1 overexpression in head and neck cancer is associated with poor tumor differentiation and patient outcome

“…ET‐1 expression correlates with a poor prognosis in lung cancer (Boldrini et al., ). In HNSCC, several studies have identified the ET system as potential biomarkers of HNSCC progression and prognosis (Alaizari, Abdelbary, & Amin, ; Cheng et al., ; Hinsley, Hunt, Hunter, Whawell, & Lambert, 2012a; Hinsley, Kumar, Hunter, Whawell, & Lambert, 2012b; Hoffmann, Yurgel, & Campos, , ; Mankapure, Barpande, Bhavthankar, & Mandale, ). It has been demonstrated that overexpression of ET axis components has been found in HNSCC, ET‐1 can promote progression or invasion by stromal–epithelial interactions, and targeting the stromal ET system may be a novel therapeutic strategy (Hinsley et al., 2012b; McKenzie, Hinsley, Hunter, & Lambert, ).…”

“…It has been demonstrated that overexpression of ET axis components has been found in HNSCC, ET‐1 can promote progression or invasion by stromal–epithelial interactions, and targeting the stromal ET system may be a novel therapeutic strategy (Hinsley et al., 2012b; McKenzie, Hinsley, Hunter, & Lambert, ). Big ET‐1 may be used as a diagnostic marker in OSCC; however, its use as a prognostic tool warrants more prospective studies (Mankapure et al., ).…”

Prevention and early diagnosis of oral cancer – a literature review

“…Serum big endothelin-1 as a biomarker in oral squamous cell carcionoma patients: an analytical study [27].…”

“…Fifteen studies were classified in this topic addressing this topic [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. From these, several studies [14,15,17,[19][20][21][22][23] have indicated the need to develop other methods for the diagnosis of oral lesions equivalent to biopsy, but with lower cost and easy-to-apply.…”

Non-Invasive Methods for Early Diagnosis of Oral Cancer

“…But only a few markers can detect cancer at an early stage. The disadvantages of this method are most people have a small amount of these markers that prevents detection, the levels of these markers tend to increase when the disease progresses, some cancer patients may never have high levels of markers, and even in the presence of elevated levels, they do not always indicate cancer, as they may be related to other disorders [6,[32][33][34][35][36].…”