مجله دانشکده دندانپزشکی اصفهان (Jan 2010)
A Comparative Study on HER2/neu Expression in Normal Mucosa, Epithelial Dysplasia and Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Abstract
Introduction: HER2/neu is a proto-oncogene with a homologous sequence associated with epidermal growth factor. However the role of HER2/neu in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of HER2/neu expression in the carcinogenesis of OSCC. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective descriptive analytic study, the expression of HER2/neu oncoprotein was evaluated in 18 cases of OSCC, 18 cases of epithelial dysplasia and 18 cases of normal oral mucosa by immunohistochemistry using Anti HER2/neu. Percentage and intensity of epithelial membrane staining for HER2/neu were carefully assessed and scored in all cases. Score 1.0 was considered negative while scores 2 and 3 were regarded as positive. The collected data were analyzed with Chi-square and fisher exact test using SPSS17. P values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.Results: In normal oral mucosa, HER2/neu was almost undetectable. There was only one case (0.06%) of HER2/neu positive (Score 2) in normal oral mucosa. In oral epithelial dysplasia, 11% of cases were shown to be positive (Score2). In the OSCC group however, the positive rate rose to 17% of cases (score 2). No significant differences could be found between normal oral mucosa group, oral epithelial dysplasia group and OSCC group (p>0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that HER2/neu seems not to have a main role in carcinogenesis and therefore can be used neither as a reliable marker in the diagnosis of OSCC nor for the histopathologic differentiation of normal mucosa/oral epithelial dysplasia from OSCC. Key words: Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Dysplasia, HER2/neu. Immunohistochemistr
