Objective: To study the prognostic significance of E-cadherin, β-catenin, and cyclin D1 expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma.
Subjects and methods: The study included 65 subjects with histologically confirmed squamous cell carcinoma. TMA blocks were prepared for immunohistochemical quantification of the expression of the three markers using IHC profiler and Immune ratio plugin of Image J.
Results: E-cadherin expression was significantly correlated with histological grades and the metastasis status (p<0.05), whereas β-catenin expression was significantly correlated with smoking and tumor recurrence (P<0.05). Cyclin D1 expression was significantly correlated with depth of invasion and tumor recurrence. (p<0.05). Advanced tumor stage and depth of tumor invasion increases the risk of recurrence or death by 2.5 times (OR= 2.53 and 0.84 respectively).
Conclusion: High expression of β-Catenin and Cyclin D1 are significantly correlated with tumor recurrence and old age. Depth of invasion, low histological grade and old age were a significant predictor for the risk of having tumor recurrence and cancer related death.