Abstract
The etiological factors of squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck have been well known for a long time. It is also well known that the incidence of oral cancer diagnosed in younger patients is on the rise. Due to the young age of these patients, the increase in the number of these cases and the fact that many of them neither smoke nor drink alcohol it has been suggested that other factors might be at play in the carcinogenesis of oral cancer. Thus, along the classic etiological factors of smoking and alcohol abuse certain molecular marker anomalies and the human papilloma virus (HPV) have emerged as potential factors. The aim of the present study is to verify the potential prognostic factors and to map the differences in biomarker expression between the young and the old patient groups. In the present study the immunohistochemical profile of samples obtained from oral squamous cell carcinomas was studied and compared with various clinico-pathological parameters. In 88 samples the expressions of p16, p53, Ki67, EGFR were studied with a tissue microarray technique under standard reaction conditions as well as the detection and typing of HPV infection with the Full Spectrum HPV DNA method. The biomarker expression profile of young patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma was compared to that of older patients (above 50). A significant difference was found between the immunohistochemical profile of the young and old patient groups in p16, Ki67 expression. The overall survival and progression free survival were influenced by p16 expression in young age.
Highlights
Based on the WHO Globocan online database the incidence of oral and lip cancer in 2018 is at the 16th place
Following this the slides were washed with a Tris buffered saline (TBS) buffer for 30 min and were incubated with the primary antibodies against p16, Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), Nuclear antigen (Ki67) and p53. p16 (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Dallas, United States), EGFR (Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Dallas, United States) and Ki67 (Roche Diagnostics, Basel, Switzerland) antibodies were applied in a dilution of 1:100, while p53 (Roche Diagnostics, Basel, Switzerland) was applied in a dilution of 1:200
Human papilloma virus (HPV) DNA was expressed in one case only with the Full Spectrum HPV DNA Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)
Summary
Based on the WHO Globocan online database the incidence of oral and lip cancer in 2018 is at the 16th place. Looking at the frequency of all tumours in a population this rank is 12th in the population younger than 50 years. In the same time interval in terms of prevalence oral and lip tumours were ranked 14th and they were in the 11th position among patients under 50 years of age [1]. Changes in molecular markers and HPV have been suggested in this young patient group as important factors or as a viral cause [3, 4]. A change in sexual behaviour is considered to be a risk factor of viral infections, but it remains an open question whether or not the steadily growing number of oral SCCs in young adults can be explained with this alone or not
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