Abstract

SAMPAIO, Roberta Moura; CAVALCANTI, Mariana Porto Carreiro Coelho; LIMA, Maria do Carmo Abreu e  and  SOBRAL, Ana Paula Veras. Correlation of clinical staging with the expression of e-cadherin in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Rev. cir. traumatol. buco-maxilo-fac. [online]. 2011, vol.11, n.3, pp. 85-92. ISSN 1808-5210.

Objective: To establish the correlation of the clinical staging of epidermoid intrabuccal carcinoma with the expression pattern of the E-cadherin protein. Material and Methods: A selection was made of 35 cases diagnosed with oral squamous cell carcinoma from 2004 to 2007 at Pernambuco Cancer Hosptial. The immunohistochemistry technique was performed by the estreptovidine biotine method using E-cadherin as the primary antibody. Results: The mean age of the patients was 61 years. There was a predominance of male patients (60%); the tongue was the most commonly affected site (51.4%); the combination of smoking and alcohol was present in 51.4% of cases; stage II had the highest number of cases, and death was observed in 40.6% of patients undergoing treatment. The E-cadherin showed membrane (55.1%) and cytoplasm (44.9%) staining, either focal or diffuse. Statistically significant associations between these variables were found only between sex and histological grade of the tumors (p = 1000) and between gender and treatment (p = 0.409). Conclusion: In the sample we observed that the epidemiological profile of patients with OSCC is male, a drinker and smoker aged between 40 and 69 years. It was not possible to establish a correlation between the variables studied with the aim of trying to predict the biological behavior of tumors, neither did the expression of E-cadherin protein prove valid for this purpose

Keywords : E-cadherin; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; Immunohistochemistry.