Study of expression of endoglin (CD105) in oral squamous cell carcinoma

CONTEXT: Oral cancer is the 8(th) most common cancer in the world. An important feature of carcinogenesis is angiogenesis. Endoglin is a powerful marker of neovascularization in solid malignancies. This study was done to ascertain its role as an indicator of metastasis and prognosis. AIM: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the expression of endoglin (CD105) in metastatic primary tumor, lymph node of the metastasized tumor, nonmetastatic primary tumor and in normal buccal mucosa immunohistochemically. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The total sample size comprised 45 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue blocks, n = 10 metastasized primary tumor, n = 10 lymph nodes of metastasized primary tumor, n = 20 nonmetastasized oral squamous cell carcinoma and n = 5 normal buccal mucosa were studied. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Immunohistochemistry for endoglin was performed and microvessel density (MVD) was determined by hot spot method. Microvessel density was compared between the groups. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Statistical analysis was used using one-way ANOVA. P < 0.05 was statistically significant. RESULTS: Endoglin expression in metastatic cases (0.68 + 0.10) was higher than nonmetastatic cases (0.45 + 0.20) and the difference was statistically significant (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION: This study shows that presence of endoglin determines the metastatic potential of the tumor and its prognosis, thus, could be considered as a potential target of therapy.