Assessment of immunohistochemical expression of trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (Trop 2) in oral squamous cell carcinoma and its clinicopathological correlation

Abstract

Trophoblast cell surface antigen 2 (Trop 2) is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is involved in a variety of oncogenic cell signaling pathways. Its heterogeneous expression in normal and cancerous tissues makes it a diagnostic and prognostic marker for various malignancies, including Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC). To assess the immunohistochemical expression of Trop 2 in OSCC and evaluate its clinicopathological correlation. Histopathologically diagnosed 40 cases of OSCC and their respective clinical records were retrieved and subsequent clinical staging and histopathological grading was done. Formalin fixed parrafin embedded sections were subjected to immunohistochemistry with anti Trop 2 antibody using standard DAB technique. The immunohistochemical expression of Trop 2 was evaluated using immunostaining intensity and mean integrated score followed by its comparison with age, gender, anatomical site, clinical stages and histopathological grades of OSCCTrop 2 expression was positive in 97.5% of cases. There was a statistically significant difference (p value<0.001) between immunostaining intensity and integrated score of Trop 2 among various histopathological grades of OSCC. As grade of OSCC increased, integrated score decreased. Trop 2 is one of the biomarkers that may serve as a useful tool to detect the changes undergoing at the molecular level which have prognostic or therapeutic significance.