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Updated: Jul 18, 2026
Development of Compendium for Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Published on: April 12, 2024
Increased CK19 expression correlated with pathologic differentiation grade and prognosis in oral squamous cell
Lai-ping Zhong1, Wan-tao Chen, Chen-ping Zhang
1Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Ninth People's Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Objective:
To investigate cytokeratin 19 (CK19) expression in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissue as well as its correlation with pathologic differentiation grade and prognosis.
Study Design:
Cancerous and distant tissues from 33 primary OSCC patients were collected during surgery. Each sample was divided into 2 parts, one for CK19 protein detection using immunohistochemistry, and the other for CK19 mRNA-level detection of relative quantification using fluorescent real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Results:
The CK19 positive rate in cancerous tissue was 90.9% (30 out of 33) detected using immunohistochemistry, which was significantly higher than that in distant tissue (15.2%, 5 out of 33) by chi-square test (P < .001). The CK19 positive score in cancerous tissue was also significantly higher than that in the corresponding distant tissue by paired samples t test (P < .001). Patients with positive CK19 expression in distant tissue had higher tumor recurrence rate (P = .008) and lower survival rate (P = .015) than those with negative CK19 expression in distant tissue. Using fluorescent real-time RT-PCR, CK19 mRNA level in cancerous tissue was 2.21-fold higher than that in distant tissue (P = .020). The CK19 expression correlated significantly with pathologic differentiation grade, which was detected not only using immunohistochemistry (P = .002) but also using fluorescent real-time RT-PCR (P = .025), poorer differentiated indicating higher CK19 positive score and CK19 mRNA level.
Conclusions:
Increased CK19 protein expression and gene transcription in OSCC tissue correlate significantly with pathologic differentiation grade. Positive CK19 expression in distant tissue suggests a higher tumor recurrence rate and a lower survival rate.