E-Cadherin gene expression in oral cancer: clinical and prospective data

• Sandra López-Verdín ^[1] ; Margarita de la Luz Martínez-Fierro ^[2] ; Idalia Garza-Veloz ^[2] ; Ana Zamora-Perez ^[1] ; Jonathan Grajeda-Cruz ^[1] ; Rogelio González-González ^[3] ; Nelly Molina-Frechero ^[4] ; Miguel Arocena ^[5] ; Ronell Bologna-Molina ^[5]
  1. [1] Universidad de Guadalajara

     Universidad de Guadalajara

     México

     
  2. [2] Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas

     Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas

     México

     
  3. [3] Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango

     Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango

     México

     
  4. [4] Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana

     Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana

     México

     
  5. [5] Universidad de la República

     Universidad de la República

     Uruguay

     

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• Localización: Medicina oral, patología oral y cirugía bucal. Ed. inglesa, ISSN-e 1698-6946, Vol. 24, Nº. 4 (July), 2019
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Low protein expression of E-cadherin in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) has been associated with clinical and histopathological traits such as metastases, recurrence, low survival and poor tumor differentiation, and it is considered a high-risk marker of malignancy. However, it is still unknown whether low expression of E-cadherin is also present at the mRNA level in OSCC cases. Objective: The aim of this study was to compare E-cadherin mRNA expression in OSCC patients and controls and to correlate the expression with clinical and prospective characteristics.

    Forty patients and 40 controls were enrolled. E-cadherin mRNA expression was evaluated by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction using TaqMan probes.

    E-cadherin mRNA expression was significantly decreased in OSCC patients compared to that of controls (p<0.001). Whereas no significant association between clinical parameters and E-cadherin expression levels was observed, we noted lower E-cadherin expression levels in patients with positive lymph node metastasis.

    E-cadherin mRNA expression was markedly diminished in OSCC, in agreement with previous results that examined E-cadherin expression at the protein level. E-cadherin is downregulated in the early clinical stages of OSCC, and its mRNA levels do not change significantly in the advanced stages, suggesting that there is limited usefulness of this parameter for predicting disease progression.