Wednesday, 6 July 2022

Study on Diagnostic and Prognostic Significance of E-Cadherin and Vimentin in Oral Cancer Metastasis | Chapter 10 | Current Practice in Medical Science Vol. 2

Background: To determine how the expression of E-cadherin and vimentin affects epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in precancerous and cancerous lesions of the oral cavity and oropharynx, as well as to predict invasiveness based on the distinct pattern of expression of these two proteins.

Materials and methods: Haematoxylin and eosin sections, as well as immunohistochemistry expression of E-cadherin and vimentin, were used to investigate biopsies and samples from the oral cavity and oropharynx for any premalignant lesions and invasive epithelial squamous lesions where necessary. Patients' follow-up and therapy-related changes were also examined during the trial.

Results: In our study, there were 64 premalignant cases and 23 malignant cases, with 65 (71.0%) men and 22 (29.0%) females. The majority of malignant cases—15, or 64.2%—occurred in the fifth and sixth decades of life, while the majority of premalignant lesions—36, or 56.4%—occurred in the fourth and fifth. Leukoplakia accounted for 14 cases (21.9%) of the 64 premalignant oral lesions, of which 3 instances also exhibited mild to severe dysplasia. Premalignant lesions had significant 4+/3+ E-cadherin expression in the majority of cases, but vimentin expression was weaker or negative in both dysplasias and carcinoma-in-situ (p=0.013). Six out of ten (60%) instances of well-differentiated cancer had a 4+ degree of E-cadherin staining, compared to zero out of ten (0%), and just one, case, respectively, of poorly differentiated carcinoma. Vimentin was expressed to a higher degree in 6/10 (60%) instances of well-differentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma than it was in 6/10 (60%) cases of poorly-differentiated carcinoma. One (1.6%) of the positive lymph node metastasis cases had high E-cadherin staining, whereas four (66.6%) had no E-cadherin staining at all. In our investigation, the differences in the immunoreactivities between CIS and microinvasive or invasive carcinomas were statistically significant (p 0.001). When invasive carcinomas were compared to dysplasias and carcinoma-in-situ, E-cadherin expression was dramatically decreased, and the difference in immunoreactivity was statistically significant (p value 0.05). It was statistically significant (p value 0.05) that vimentin expression increased as the tumour developed from dysplasias to carcinoma-in-situ to invasive carcinomas.

Conclusions: The evaluation of tumour behaviour, prognosis, survival, and patient therapy can be aided by the use of immunohistochemistry E-cadherin and vimentin stains. Future research on tumour microinvasion for early detection and patient survival can use these substances as biomarkers.

Author(s) Details:

Anjum Ara,
Department of General Pathology, Faculty of Dentistry, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India.

Kafil Akhtar,
Department of Pathology Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Faculty of Medicine, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.

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