Immunohistochemical expression of TFIIH and XPF in oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma.
PURPOSE
The query for biomarkers that indicate tumor aggressiveness and the host's response to treatment is still one of the leading aims of cancer research. To investigate a possible role for DNA nucleotide repair proteins in oral cancer behavior, this study evaluated the immunoexpression of the proteins TFIIH and XPF and its association with clinical, histological, and survival parameters in oral tongue squamous-cell carcinoma (OTSCC).


METHODS
TFIIH and XPF immunoexpressions were evaluated in 82 cases of oral tongue squamous-cell carcinoma. Tumor budding and depth of invasion were assessed for histopathological grading (BD model).


RESULTS
Tumor cells exhibited high expression of TFIIH and XPF, which was associated to nodal status; both proteins were not associated with other clinical parameters, histopathological grading or survival. Tumor size, nodal status, tumor staging, and depth of invasion > 4 mm were significantly associated to disease-specific survival.


CONCLUSIONS
We have demonstrated that the overexpression of TFIIH correlates positively with node metastasis, while XPF correlates negatively with node metastasis; therefore, the expression of XPF and TFIIH had a potential value for predicting the progression of OTSCC patients.
['Sá|Melka Coêlho|MC|', 'Conceição|Thalita Santana|TS|', 'de Moura Santos|Edilmar|E|', 'de Morais|Everton Freitas|EF|', 'Galvão|Hébel Cavalcanti|HC|', 'de Almeida Freitas|Roseana|R|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7577-5375']
D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms D006801:Humans D009062:Mouth Neoplasms D009367:Neoplasm Staging D011379:Prognosis D000077195:Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck D014062:Tongue Neoplasms
Oral cancer DNA repair Histopathological grading system Immunohistochemistry