Background: Neck lymph node metastasis has the prognostic role in SCC of the tongue and the importance of the biologic markers in tumor invasion and metastasis has been stated in the medical literature. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between two biomarkers, p53 and EGFR (which had the main role in cell proliferation) and two other biomarkers, CD44 and E-cadherin, in lymph node metastasis.
Methods: In an analytic descriptive study fifty three patients with SCC (Squamous Cell Carcinoma) of the tongue who underwent the resection of tumor and dissection of neck lymph nodes were assessed during the year of 2002-2009. Histological samples from 53 patients were immunohistochemically stained and the analysis of these markers were performed due to clinicopathological variable and metastasis of the neck lymph nodes.
Results: The result showed that among the clinicopathological factors, the relationship between Age (p=0.01), history of having risk factors (p=0.002), clinical lymphadenopathy (p=0.002), the size of the tumor (p=0.001), decreasing of CD44 (p=0.02) and lymph node metastasis of the neck were statistically significant. No significant relationship were found between sex and other biomarkers including p53, EGFR, E-cadherin.
Conclusion: CD44 is an important indicator of prognostic markers that can also be used as an indicator of clinocopathological markers.