Abstract
Background: Autophagy is a cellular process responsible for maintaining homeostasis; a dysregulation of this process is involved in the development and progression of neoplasms. Beclin-1 is one of the major proteins linked to autophagy. However, the data regarding the association between the role of Beclin-1 and the progression of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) are rather low. For this reason, the objective of this study is to evaluate, through immunohistochemical techniques, the prognostic role of the expression of Beclin-1 autophagy marker in patients with OSCC. Methods: This is a single-centre retrospective study that includes patients with OSCC admitted to the Maxillofacial Unit of “Magna Graecia” University between January 2019 and September 2020. All the samples obtained from surgery were treated with anti Beclin-1 antibodies and subjected to immunohistochemical methods. Results: A total of 26 samples were analysed and the following variables were evaluated for each: percentage of positive Beclin-1 expression by tumour cells, signal strength of tumour cells, and total score. The variables considered were first normalised according to the D’Agostino and Pearson test, then analysed using the Pearson linear correlation coefficient: a statistically significant correlation was found between the parameters infiltration-intensity (p = 0.0088), infiltration-percent (p = 0.0123), intensity-total score (p = 0.0060). Conclusions: The immunohistochemical evaluation of Beclin-1 revealed a statistically significant correlation between the intensity of the molecule’s expression and a greater degree of infiltration of the neoplasm. Beclin-1 can, therefore, be considered a valid prognostic index of disease.
Highlights
Among tumours of the oral-maxillofacial district, oral cancer is certainly the most frequent: it is the 11th most common malignancy in the world
Beclin-1 is a cellular protein involved in this process, the activation of which aims to safeguard the survival of the cell
From the data collected in the literature, it is clear that Beclin-1 is related to the onset of neoplasms in different districts [28,29,30,31,32,33,34]
Summary
Among tumours of the oral-maxillofacial district, oral cancer is certainly the most frequent: it is the 11th most common malignancy in the world. Despite the general global trend of a slight decrease in the incidence of oral cancer, tongue cancer incidence is increasing, especially in young people [1,2]. Over 90–95% of these are Squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC), while the remainder includes adenocarcinomas, melanomas, sarcomas, and lymphomas. OSCC represents a health problem worldwide due to its morbidity and mortality. The incidence of OSCC shows variability according to the geographic location, age groups, gender, races, and ethnic groups [3,4]. Even though over the years increasingly advanced therapeutic strategies have been developed, 5-year survival rates have been reported to be about 50% [5,6], being most of them diagnosed at an advanced stage (III)
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