Perilesional sites of OSCC had altered P-cadherin expression

Abstract

Epithelial cells at surgical free margins are considered to be free of pathology at the morphological level. However, they might be associated with molecular changes when considering clonal expansion of pre-neoplastic cells in a particular tumor field; that subsequent genomic changes could drive them towards the malignant development.To evaluate the distribution and cellular localization of P-cad at the perilesional area of OSCC, in comparison with normal oral mucosa and correlate such expression to clinical parameters and histopathological grading of the primary lesion.Normal oral mucosa revealed membranous basal and parabasal expression. All the perilesional samples showed positive results with 55% overexpression. The cytoplasmic expression alone or mixed with membranous localization was the predominant expression (18 out of 20 cases). Sex, age, and clinical presentations did not show any significant relations in response to P-cad distribution or intracellular localization. While P-cad intracellular localization was significantly correlated with the histopathological grading (P=0.046) and epithelial cell layers distribution (P=0.026). P-cad overexpression was seen in 81.8% in WDSCC (9/11) perilesional sites.P-cadherin overexpression and shifting its intracellular localization from membranes to cytoplasmic and mixed at the perilesional site of oral cancer could be considered as a mark for revealing cancerization and lateral spreading.