Prognostic Potential of N-Cadherin in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma via Immunohistochemical Methods.

Objective: To assess the prognostic potential for N-cadherin in oral squamous cell carcinoma and oral epithelial dysplasia.

Study Design: Across-sectional study, analytical study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Maharishi Markandeshwar College of Dental Science Research (MMCDSR), Ambala, India, from 2011 to 2014.

Methodology: Immunohistochemistry was used to observe the N-cadherin expression in 100 cases having epithelium with normal oral mucosa, oral epithelial dysplastic lesions and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). For statistical significance, SPSS 13.0 was used to calculate the data by Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

Results: In OSCC, N-cadherin expression was more evident than in oral epithelial dysplasia followed by the normal oral epithelium that did not show any dysplastic changes (p=0.001). Conversely, N-cadherin expression was not significant among the histological grade of OSCC.

Conclusion: N-cadherin can be used as a potential biomarker for early diagnosis of OSCC. However, the N-cadherin expression did not show any correlation with the histological grade of OSCC.