Prognostic significance of tetraspanin CD9 and oncogenic epidermal growth factor receptor in tongue squamous cell carcinoma survival.

The most prevalent locations for head and neck cancer is the tongue. The surviving patients who are receiving therapy have considerably compromised speech, taste, chewing, and swallowing. CD9 is a cell surface protein that has contradictory role in cancer progression. The objective of the study is to analyze the Cluster of Differentiation 9(CD9), Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) and Phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt) expression in tongue cancer specimens and its clinical significance.50 tongue cancer sections were used to analyze the expression of CD9,EGFR and p-Akt by immunohistochemistry. Data regarding the histological grade of the tumor, age, sex, and habits were recorded, and relation with CD9,EGFR and p-Akt expression was assessed. Data were expressed as mean ± SEM. Categorical data was analyzed by Chi-square test. Student t-test was used to check the significance of data between two groups.A significant increase in the CD9,EGFR and p-Akt expression (1.8 ± 0.11, 2.06 ± 0.18 and 2.3 ± 0.15 respectively) was seen in the tongue cancer specimens. CD9 and p-Akt expression had a significant association with the histological grade (p < 0.004 and p < 0.006 respectively). CD9 expression was higher in patients with the combination of addiction/habit compared to patients with single addictions(1.08 ± 0.11 and 0.75 ± 0.47). Overall a poor rate of survival was observed in CD9 positive patients(p < 0.039). EGFR and p-Akt expression increased with increasing expression of CD9, suggesting its use as a biomarker to track the development of TSCC.