title: Clinical significance of aberrant vimentin expression in oral premalignant lesions and carcinomas.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the clinical significance of vimentin expression at early and late events of tobacco/areca nut-associated oral tumorigenesis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was carried out on paraffin-embedded tissues of oral mucosa normal (n = 10), inflammatory lesions (n = 19), leukoplakia (n = 52), submucous fibrosis (n = 71) and tumours/cut margins (n = 227 each), using anti-vimentin antibody, and the expression profile was correlated with patients' clinical parameters. Immunofluorescence, Western blot and RT-PCR analysis were also carried out wherever adequate and fresh tissues were available.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Aberrant vimentin expression was seen in hyperplastic, dysplastic and fibrotic tissues, which showed statistically significant correlation with the histopathological grade of dysplasia (P = 0.001) and fibrosis (P = 0.009). Vimentin expression also showed statistically significant correlation with tumour size (P = 0.048), clinical stage (P = 0.013), regional lymph node metastases (P = 0.001), local recurrence (P = 0.001) and survival (P = 0.021) of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Its expression in invasive fronts statistically correlated with development of nodal metastasis and local recurrence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest possible role of vimentin in early events of tobacco/areca nut-associated oral tumorigenesis, which may prove useful to predict the malignant potential of high-risk oral lesions. Further, association between vimentin expression in invasive fronts and aggressive phenotype of tumours may help clinicians to choose the appropriate treatment modality for OSCC management.
authors.affiliation: Tata Memorial Centre, Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC), Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, India.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Sawant
authors.forename: M m
authors.initials: Mm
authors.lastname: Vaidya
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Chaukar
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Alam
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dmello
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gangadaran
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kannan
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kane
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Dange
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dey
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ranganathan
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: D'Cruz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000737:chemistry; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D011230:Precancerous Conditions / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014746:Vimentin / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014746:Vimentin
keywords: diagnosis; leukoplakia; oral cavity cancer; submucous fibrosis; vimentin