Expression of Ki-67 and Βeta-Catenin in Pseudoepitheliomatous Hyperplasia and Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Oral Mucosal Biopsies : An Immunohistochemical Study

OBJECTIVE: To examine the immunohistochemical expression of Ki-67 and beta-catenin in pseudoepitheliomatous hyperplasia and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in oral mucosal biopsies. METHODS: In this comparative cross sectional study, 70 cases of each PEH and OSCC were taken from the patients of both genders and in all age groups. Study was conducted at Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), Rawalpindi from Dec 2017 to March 2019. Statistical analysis was done with the help of SPSS Version 24.0. We used Chi-Squared test with p value of < 0.05 which was considered as statistically significant. RESULTS: In the current study, 80 (57.1%) male and 60 (42.8%) female patients with the mean age of 51.69 ± 16.121 (mean ± SD) years were included. It was found that 6-25% Ki-67 labeling index was observed in all (70) PEH cases, which involved only basal layer of the epithelium. Whereas, Ki-67 labeling index was highly expressed in tumor of high grade malignancy than tumor of low grade malignancy. On the other hand, expression of membranous beta-catenin was higher in PEH and cytoplasmic beta-catenin expression was higher in OSCC. CONCLUSION : It is concluded that Ki-67 and beta-catenin showed significant expression in PEH and OSCC in oral mucosal biopsies especially those with intense inflammation or unoriented tissue, helping the clinicians to arrive at a final diagnosis before planning any surgical intervention.