Clinicopathological significance of PTEN and bcl2 expressions in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

A high frequency of mutations at the PTEN locus has been noticed in carcinoma of oral. However, the role of PTEN alternations and its association with outcome variables in the genesis of oral carcinoma is not understood fully. The purpose of our study was to examine the impact of PTEN and Bcl2 in the genesis of squamous cell carcinoma of oral. Total numbers of 60 histopathologically confirmed cases of squamous cell carcinoma and 15 cases of inflammatory lesion of oral specimens were studied. We assessed PTEN and bcl2 overexpression by the use of anti-PTEN and anti-bcl2 antibody through immunohistochemistry as directed by the manufacturer. There was progressive loss of PTEN expression from inflammatory lesion to OSCC (p<0.05). Significant differences were found for PTEN expression between inflammatory lesion and OSCC. The difference in expression pattern of PTEN in gender did not reach statistical significance (p>0.05). The expression of bcl2 was found to be restricted to tumor cells in well and moderately differentiated tumors. The intense expression of bcl2 was observed throughout the tumor cell in poorly differentiated tumors. The overexpression of bcl2 and loss of PTEN expression were correlated to poor differentiation, lymph node involvement and late stages. Thus, alteration of PTEN and bcl2 is likely an important molecular event in pathogenesis and carcinogenesis of oral carcinoma.