अमूर्त

SCCAg mRNA expression predicts early relapse in histopathologically negative lymphnodes of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients.

Trupti Trivedi*, Rajan Tankshali, Dhaval Jetly, Nandita Ghosh, Prabhudas Patel

Local recurrence and lymphnode (LN) metastasis are the most significant risk factors for morbidity and mortality for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of SCCAg mRNA expression in OSCC patients having histopathologically negative lymphnodes (HNLNs) and pretherapeutic peripheral blood samples (PPBs.). SCCAg mRNA was evaluated in total N=123 samples using nested RT-PCR technique. SPSS statistical software was used and p value <0.05 was considered as significant. The analysis revealed that in HNLNs, the mean ? SE for SCCAg mRNA expression was 1794.98 ? 106.67 with a median of 1488.0 while in PPBS it was 2308.27 ? 196.10 with a median of 1985.0. The frequency of SCCAg mRNA in HNLNs and in PPBs was 27% (15/55) and 29% (8/28), respectively. SCCAg mRNA expression in HNLNs and in PPBs showed a significant positive correlation with tumor size and lymphatic permeation. Multivariate survival analysis for RFS demonstrated that only SCCAg mRNA expression in HNLNs (p=0.001) and PPBs (p=0.001) were the most significant independent prognostic factors. However, for OS, multivariate analysis showed that SCCAg mRNA of HNLNs emerged at step 2 after tumor size and for PPBs it remained as single most significant independent prognostic marker. Thus, SCCAg mRNA may represent a useful tool for more accurate staging, which could improve disease management and help to obtain maximal therapeutic benefit from adjuvant therapies. Hence, SCCAg mRNA transcript could serve as a useful independent predictor of disease relapse, suggesting an increased risk of silent metastasis.