Expression of Sex Hormones in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review on Immunohistochemical Studies

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the most widespread oral malignancy. In the western world, smoking and alcohol remain the most common risk factors, whereas smokeless tobacco and areca nut consumption are the prevalent etiological factors in South Asia. Numerous markers were studied till date to identify the disease. However, the role of sex hormones in OSCC is poorly defined. Hormonal receptors play a role in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and human papillomavirus (HPV) driven oropharyngeal cancers. It is proven that the expression of estrogen receptor-α improved the overall survival of the patient with HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer. Thus, this review article aims to determine the expression of sex hormones by immunohistochemistry in OSCC. This systematic review was performed with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement Criteria 2020. Relevant articles were collected from the electronic database in PubMed and Cochrane till 2021. Immunohistochemical studies on sex hormones and their role in OSCC published in English literature were included. We excluded case reports, case series, and abstract-only articles. The sample size of the selected studies varied, and these studies measured the parameters such as sex hormones and OSCC. Furthermore, all the studies used different sex hormones and their association with oral cancer through the immunohistochemical process. Thus, this review summarizes that sex hormones influence the biopathology of oral cancer and have a prognostic significance in the tumor subgroups.