Immunohistochemical Evaluation of the NM23-H1 Gene Product in the Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between the MN23-H1 gene product and the disease of oral squamous cell carcinoma. Materials and Methods: Fourty-six subjects who had received tumor ablation surgery and had complete medical records of the oral squamous cell carcinoma (male/female: 43/3; age: 33-88 years old, average, 54.32 years old; buccal mucosa, 22 cases; tongue, 13 cases; and gingival, 11 cases) were selected from 2000 to 2002 in Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Taiwan. Expressions of the NM23-H1 gene in these tumor cells were analyzed immunohistochemically. Results: The results show that the expression of the NM23-H1 gene was slightly increased in these 46 cases. There were 25 cases (54.3%) which exhibited positive staining. After analyzing these data with X² analysis, expression of the NM23-H1 gene was not statistically related to gender (male or female), site (buccal mucosa, tongue, or gingiva), tumor differentiation (well or non-well), neck lymph nodes metastasis (yes or no), or distant metastasis (yes or no) (p > 0.05). Conclusions: This study shows that expression of the NM23-H1 gene was slightly increased in oral squamous cell carcinoma, but failed to show a clinically, the predictable relationship between neck lymph node metastasis and NM23-H1 gene expression.