Evaluation of e-cadherin and vimentin expression for different grades of oral epithelial dysplasia and oral squamous cell carcinoma – An immunohistochemical study

BACKGROUND: Oral cancer is the 11(th)common cancer in the world and ranks 6(th)globally in deaths. The incidence of oral cancer in India accounts for approximately 30%–40% of all cancers. AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: The present study was undertaken to evaluate the expression of Vimentin and E-cadherin in different grades of oral epithelial dysplasias (OEDs) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Biopsies/blocks of oral cavity lesions were retrieved from the archives of the department. Normal oral mucosa (5 cases), oral epithelial dysplastic (60 cases) and different grades of OSCC (60 cases) evaluated by hematoxylin and eosin sections. Immunohistochemical analysis was done on the blocks and expression of E-cadherin and Vimentin was recorded. RESULTS: Our study included various grades of OED, OSCC and normal mucosa as control cases. The mean age of OED and OSCC was 49 and 56 years, respectively, with male predominance. Tobacco habit was present in approximately 90% cases, and buccal mucosa was the most commonly involved site in oral cavity with whitish patch and ulceroproliferative lesions being the common clinical presentations respectively. In OED, downregulation and altered localization of e-cadherin (81.6%) and increased expression of vimentin (52.3%) along with their concurrent increase in the stroma represent epithelial mesenchymal transition. In OSCC, reduction in expression (<50%) for e-cadherin (56.6%) with altered localization for e-cadherin was seen in 88.3% of OSCC along with neoexpression of vimentin in the epithelial cells was seen in 68.3% suggestive of mesenchymal phenotypic modification (P = 0.05). CONCLUSION: It is very crucial to evaluate the invasiveness of dysplasia and tumor with specific molecular biomarker that may help in early prediction of malignancy and also guide in deciding best treatment strategy for established cases of malignancy.