Imunoexpressão da proteína PTEN em amostras de carcinoma epidermoide bucal e sua correlação com características clínico-patológicas e sobrevida

Abstract

Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) is the most common malignant neoplastic that affects the oral cavity, accounting for 90% of all cases diagnosed in this anatomic site. Despite the recent advances in the treatment, the survival rate varies from 30 to 50%. Molecular mechanisms which elucidates the agressive behaviour of these lesions help to identify new chemotherapeutics that might be used in the treatment in order to improve the survival rates. The aim of this study was investigating the imunoexpression of PTEN protein through the immunohistochemical technique (IHC) in CEB samples and relate them with clinicopathological features, histological grades and survival and in addition, evaluate the presence of allelic deletion through the Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization technique (FISH). Our results showed that a total from 119 cases of CEB, 31 cases were negative to expression of protein PTEN and 88 cases were positive for PTEN, from which 15 (17,05%) were well differentiated, 43 (48,86%) moderately differentiated and 30 (34,09%) were poorly differentiated. Considering the clinicophatological features, there were not statistically significant correlations with the IHC expression of PTEN. Regarding the survival rates, it was observed that patients presenting lymph node infiltration (N) = 2 or 3 has 4 times greater risk of dying than those presenting N = 0 or 1. Finally, there was a significant association between expression by IHC negative and the result of FISH technique regarding the deletion, and between the positive PTEN expression and the non-deleted result of FISH technique.