Association of Mucin-4 Expression In Anneroth Grades of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the expression of Mucin-4 amongst separate histological categories of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan. Study Design: It was a cross-sectional descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: It was carried out from July 01, 2021, to December 31, 2021, at the Department of Oral Pathology, University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. Materials and Methods: The study comprised fifty cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma randomly taken from the archives of Sheikh Zayed Hospital and Federal Postgraduate Medical Institute, Lahore as per the selection criteria agreed upon. The association of mucin-4 expression with different histological grades (based on the Anneroth grading system) was analyzed in this study. Data were entered into SPSS 20 for statistical analysis. Age was represented as mean ± standard deviation while gender distribution and tumor grades were presented as frequencies and percentages. Results: Out of a total of fifty retrieved samples, thirty were analyzed (twenty were excluded based on the exclusion criteria). Of these thirty samples, 16 (53.3%) were male and 14 (46.6%) were female. Consistent with the Anneroth grading method, grade I comprised 11 (36%), grade II comprised 13 (43.3%), and grade III comprised six cases (20%) respectively. Overall positive expression of Mucin-4 was found to be 73% and a significant relation was found to exist between the intensity score and the total score of MUC-4 with Anneroth grades of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma with a decrease in expression and an intensification in tumor grade. Conclusion: A decrease in the expression of Mucin-4 was noted with an increase in the tumor grade when the expression of Mucin-4 was evaluated amongst separate histological categories of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients.