Clinicopathological significance of VEGF and pAkt expressions in oral squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the expressions of VEGF and pAkt protein, and to evaluate their clinicopathological implications in oral cancer. A total of 55 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and 15 cases of inflammatory lesion as a control were included in the study. Expression pattern of pAkt and VEGF protein was evaluated through immunohistochemistry. In addition, apoptosis was evaluated using TUNEL assay. pAkt protein showed 43.63% expression in oral cancer, whereas undetectable expression was noticed in inflammatory lesion (p 0.05). High expression of VEGF (58.18%) was noticed in OSCC cases and inflammatory lesion did not show any expression. The expression pattern of VEGF increased with increasing the grade of tumour and difference in expression pattern among grades was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Moreover, VEGF protein expression was associated with stages of the cancer). The positive rate of apoptosis was 70.9%. The percentage of apoptotic cells varied from 0.3% to 20.3% and the median was 9.5. These findings advocate that overexpression of VEGF and upregulation of Akt may play a role in the development and progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma.