Comparative analysis of Twist and Podoplanin immunoexpression between Squamous Cell Carcinomas of oral tongue and lower lip
Carcinoma, Squamous Cell,Twist-Related Protein 1, Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition,Pathology, Oral
Oral cancer is a major public health problem around the world, and among oral neoplasms, Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common one. Exposure to tobacco, smokeless tobacco products and alcohol are the main risk factors associated with the development of oral cancer, acting not only independently but also synergistically. Oral cancer metastasis is a complex process involving loss of cell adhesion from tumor tissue, regulation of cell motility and invasion, proliferation, and dissemination through the lymphatic system or blood vessels. Twist is a transcription factor that plays a key role in the progression from a primary tumor to the metastatic stage. Podoplanin (PDPN) is a transmembrane glycoprotein, involved in the remodeling of neoplastic cells, promoting its invadopodia and increasing cellular motility, and its high expression being associated with lymph node metastasis and poor prognosis of oral cancer. Considering the elemental role promoted by Twist and PDPN in the progression of OSCC, in addition to increasing the metastatic migration of neoplastic cells to different regions of the human body, the present research aims to perform a comparative analysis of the PDPN and Twist immunoexpression between the SCC of oral tongue and lower lip, correlating them with each other and with the presence/absence of metastases in regional or distant lymph nodes, TNM clinical staging, histological pattern of invasion and histological grading of malignancy of the investigated cases. The data obtained will be entered in spread sheets in Excel software and later exported to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program. For all statistical tests, a significance level of 5% (p <0.05) will be established.