engleski

Osteopontin expression is an independent factor for survival in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Ostepontin (OPN) is phosphorilated glycoprotein involved in various physiological and pathological events, including tumor progression. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of OPN in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and to assess its prognostic significance. The expression of OPN was immunohistochemicaly analyzed in 86 OSCC tissue microarrays and compared with clinicopathological variables such as tumor size, nodal stage, WHO clinical stage, Ki-67 proliferation index, and patients' outcome. The expression of OPN protein was observed in OSCC tumor cells (tOPN) and various stromal cells (sOPN), including granulocytes, macrophages, lymphocytes, plasma cells, and fibroblasts. OPN expression was higher in OSCC tumor cells compared to adjacent normal mucosa (p< 0.001), and was associated with advanced nodal stage (p=0.03), WHO clinical stage (p=0.045), and poor clinical outcome (p=0.023). In multivariate analysis tOPN emerged as an independent factor for survival (p=0.049). There was no association between sOPN and clinicopathological variables, although a trend for higher sOPN toward the longer patients' survival was found (p=0.12). OPN protein is upregulated in OSCC. While tOPN is involved in OSCC progression and can independently predict the clinical outcome, the role of sOPN is probably different and needs to be further elucidated.

carcinoma; oral; osteopontin; prognosis; tissue array analysis

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