Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Differences in expression of EGFR, Ki67 and p-EPK in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma

Jing-qiu Bu¹ , Xi Bu², Peng Chen¹, Bing Liu³, Fei Chen¹

For correspondence:- Jing-qiu Bu Email: JingqiuBu133494@163.com Tel:+861066938216

Received: 5 November 2015 Accepted: 25 September 2015 Published: 27 December 2015

Citation: Bu J, Bu X, Chen P, Liu B, Chen F. Differences in expression of EGFR, Ki67 and p-EPK in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma. Trop J Pharm Res 2015; 14(12):2213-2216 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v14i12.9

© 2015 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the expression of EGFR, Ki67, and p-EPK in oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers, and to investigate their clinical significance as prognostic markers.

Methods: One hundred patients who underwent curative surgery for oral cavity or oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma in a Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital between March 1999 and October 2010 were evaluated. The level of protein expression of EGFR, Ki67 and p-EPK was assessed by immunohistochemistry. In situ hybridization was used to detect the existence of human papillomavirus (HPV).

Results: Nineteen of 75 patients with oropharyngeal cancer showed HPV-positive tumors, and two of 72 patients with oral cavity cancer showed HPV-positive tumors. EGFR and Ki67 expression was significantly higher in oral cavity cancers than in oropharyngeal cancers (p = 0.005 and p = 0.001, respectively). Loss of p-EPK occurred significantly more frequently in oral cavity cancers than in oropharyngeal cancers (p = 0.004). Overexpression of EGFR and Ki67 and loss of p-EPK were observed more frequently in HPV-negative tumors. Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that Ki67 expression had a significantly unfavorable impact on relapse-free survival in oropharyngeal cancer.

Conclusion: The expression levels of EGFR, Ki67, and p-EPK differ between oropharyngeal and oral cavity cancer and it may be attributed to HPV-related molecular pathogenesis. The expression of Ki67 might be an unfavorable prognostic marker for relapse-free survival in oropharyngeal cancer.

Keywords: EGFR; Ki67; p-EPK; Oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma, expression difference