CD44 and CD74: The promising candidates for molecular targeted therapy in oral squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND: Considering molecular target therapy concept in the treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), many attempts have been performed to introduce an effective molecular marker during recent years. Several investigations have emphasized on the role of CD44 in various cancers and few studies have mentioned CD24 and CD74. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between CD44, CD24 and CD74 expressions and several clinical or histopathological factors in OSCC patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In our analytical cross-sectional study, forty primary OSCC specimens were immunohistochemically stained for CD44, CD24, and CD74 proteins. Then, the relationship between their expressions and age, sex, lymph node metastasis, and histopathologic grading was statistically analyzed using Mann-Whitney nonparametric and t-test. Furthermore, P < 0.05 was considered as significant. RESULTS: CD44 and CD74 proteins were significantly over-expressed in OSCC patients with high grade (P = 0.001 and P = 0.001) as compared to those with low grade. Furthermore, CD74 immunoreactivity showed significantly higher expression in patients with lower age (P = 0.039). Considering lymph node metastasis, we observed significant overexpression of CD74 in patients with no lymph node involvement (P = 0.033). CONCLUSION: Our observations support the significant role of membranous CD44 protein in progression of OSCC and also introduce CD74 protein as a probable interfering factor in different aspects of OSCC.