Stearoyl coenzyme A desaturase

Abstract

Background: Oral cancer is a major public health problem in many parts of South Asia and ranking third among the cancer types in India. Numerous diagnostic, prognostic and metastatic biomarkers have been employed till date to assess various carcinomas. Stearoyl coenzyme A desaturase (SCD) is one such recently introduced biomarker that regulates key cell cycle events in normal cells and during carcinogenesis in neoplastic cells. Although SCD has been used to analyze the prognosis of breast and renal cell carcinomas, its role in oral epithelial dysplasia (OED) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains unexplored. Therefore, there is a need to analyze the role of SCD in OED and OSCC to predict their biologic behaviour. Objectives: To assess the expression levels of SCD in OED and OSCC samples and correlate them with normal oral mucosa (NOM) to determine their prognostic potential. Methodology: Fifty five tissue samples of OED (20), OSCC (20) and NOM (15) was subjected to immunohistochemistry using SCD. Clinical details and follow-up data (3 years) were recorded. Clinical and histopathological parameters were statistically analyzed using descriptive statistics, univariate and multivariate analyses, Kruskal–Wallis analysis of variance test and Mann–Whitney U tests. Results: Descriptive analysis on OED and NOM showed a statistically significant difference in age between OED and NOM (p = 0.002). Univariate analysis of OSCC cases by log-rank test revealed significant results in the usage of smoked and smokeless tobacco and clinical staging of OSCC (p = 0.044). Significantly increased SCD expression was identified with poor survival rate (p = 0.028). However, multivariate analysis of OSCC was statistically insignificant (p = 1.00). A significantly increased SCD expression was observed in OED and OSCC when compared to NOM (p = 0.001). The expression of SCD was significantly high in OSCC when compared to OED (p = 0.029). Although an increased expression of SCD was appreciated in higher grades of OED and poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, a statistical significance was not achieved (p = 0.546 and 0.388, respectively). Conclusion: The expression of SCD in OED was higher than NOM suggesting changes in cell cycle control in OED. An enhanced expression of SCD was identified in OSCC when compared to OED. Correlating the SCD expression with survival rate in OSCC patients revealed an increased SCD expression with diminished survival rate, indicating that SCD may be used to predict prognosis. However, the role of SCD in assessing the prognostic potential within the grades of OED and OSCC requires future research.