Ki-67 protein predicts survival in oral squamous carcinoma cells: an immunohistochemical study Abstract: The aim of this study was to identify the expression of Ki-67 and MCM3 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) as well as to address the correlation with patient survival and clinical features. Samples were collected from 51 patients with OSCC who presented for follow-up. Immunohistochemical expression of Ki-67 and MCM3 in all groups was performed. The scoring system was previous published by Tsurutani in 2005. We used Kappa index to evaluate observers agreement degree. The associations between protein expression and clinical variables were examined for statistical significance using the chi-squared test. The overall survival rates were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and the relationship between protein expression and survival was compared using the log-rank test (p < 0.05). The overall survival time for a patient with positive immunostaining for Ki-67 is shorter than for a patient with negative immunostaining, (log-rank test, p = 0.00882). Patients with tumor size T3 and T4 showed a statistically significant relationship with Ki-67 immunoexpression (log-rank test, p = 0.0174). The relationship between Ki-67 expression and the relation between age, gender, smoking, tumor site, lymph node metastasis and disease stage was not significant. The examiners agreement degree by Kappa presented p value < 0.05. There was not a significant correlation when we evaluated MCM3 expression regarding clinical characteristics and survival rate. From these results, the present study suggests that positive Ki-67 expression found in OSCC patients may contribute to predict the survival in OSCC samples, as well as the relation between the protein and the tumor size.

PTEN allelic loss is an important mechanism in the late stage of development of oral leucoplakia into oral squamous cell carcinomaAim: The aim of this study was to analyse allelic loss of the phosphatase and tensin homologue deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN) gene and its protein immuno-expression in dysplastic oral lesions and oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs). Methods and results: Samples were collected from 153 patients [20 ranulas used as a control (C); 30 leucoplakias with mild dysplasia (MD); 30 leucoplakias with moderate to severe dysplasia (MSD); 73 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC)]. PTEN protein expression was investigated using immunohistochemistry, and PTEN allelic loss was analysed by fluorescence in-situ hybridisation (FISH). Differences among groups were evaluated using the v 2 test.PTEN expression was higher in MSD (P = 0.002) and OSCC (P = 0.0259) compared with the C group; additionally, a higher expression was observed in MSD (P = 0.0035) and OSCC (P = 0.049) than MD. Regarding FISH analysis, a higher hemizygous (single copy) loss was observed in OSCC than in C (P = 0.0467) and in OSCC than in MD (P = 0.0175), as well as a higher homozygous deletion in OSCC compared with C (P = 0.0159) and OSCC than MD (P = 0.0145). Conclusion:The results of this work suggest that PTEN allelic loss is an important mechanism in the late stage of the development of oral potentially malignant lesions into oral cancer.

Metastases to the oral cavity are extremely rare events, representing less than 1% of all malignant oral tumors. Renal cell carcinoma constitutes about 3% of solid tumors in adults, and it is the most frequent kidney neoplasm, representing about 90% of kidney malignancies. Due to the silent growth of this neoplasm, most patients have no symptoms and the diagnosis is belated, usually after metastases. The present study reports an additional patient of metastatic renal cell carcinoma to the oral cavity regarding the clinical and pathologic features.

These data allow us to speculate on the particular utility of 17-AAG for HNSCC treatment through the inhibition of Akt protein expression, especially in the cases that retain the expression of PTEN protein.

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