Study of CK18 and GDF5 immunoexpression in oral squamous cell carcinoma and their prognostic value

Oral cavity cancer remains one of the most common cancers worldwide, with an increased incidence in young adults, although there has been lately a decrease tendency in the incidence of this form of cancer. Lingual localization has a very high mortality and tends to be more aggressive becoming frequently metastatic at the regional lymph nodes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the immunohistochemical expression of cytokeratin 18 (CK18) and the reactivity to GDF5 (CDMP-1), called the morphogenetic protein-1, cartilage-derived, in lingual squamous cell carcinoma and the correlation between the immunoreactivity of this panel of antibodies, and the clinical stage, the degree of differentiation and the invasion pattern. In this regard, we studied the immunohistochemical behavior of these markers in 15 cases of lingual squamous cell carcinoma. In our study, we observed the correlation of CK18 and GDF5 expression with the clinical stage, differentiation degree and invasion pattern, the highest levels of immunoreactivity being recorded in poorly differentiated forms, in high-level invasion patterns and in the most advanced stages. The markers used can become therapeutic targets, which could help increase the quality of life and life expectancy for these patients.