Correlation between Bcl-2 protein expression and some clinicopathological features of oral squamous cell carcinoma

Bcl-2 inhibits most kinds of programmed cell death and provides a selective survival advantage to various cell types. The biological significance of Bcl-2 expression for the development and progression of oral cancer has still to be evaluated. The aim of our study was to estimate possible correlations between the Bcl-2 protein expression and some clinicopathological features of oral cancer. The study was conduced on 129 patients treated surgically for oral squamous cell carcinoma. The statistically significant relationships were observed between oral squamous cell cancer Bcl-2 expression and higher tumor grading (p<0.005), higher tumor mitotic index (p<0.005), higher index of atypical mitoses (p<0.001) as well as microfocal pattern of tumor invasive margin (p<0.001). The results suggest that positive Bcl-2 expression may be a valuable factor supplementing the established unfavorable histopathological features of oral squamous cell carcinoma.