C-reactive protein as a prognostic indicator of oral squamous cell carcinoma-a retrospective study

ABSTRACT

The objective was to determine Serum C-Reactive protein as a prognostic indicator for Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma. It was a retrospective cross sectional study, conducted in the Department of Oral Medicine, Eastman Dental Institute, University College London. The medical records of the patients were reviewed by using NHS CDR [National Health Service Clinical Data Repository] and studying their hospital notes of the year 2005. All the patients who had histopathologically proven OSCC, being treated with surgery as primary treatment modality and had pre-operative CRP values were included in the study. Data collection included the pre-operative serum CRP values, treatment modalities, disease severity, out comes, complications and the survival time period of the patients. Thirty one patients with OSSC treated primarily with surgery were included in this study. Twenty four patients had elevated pre-operative serum CRP levels while seven patients had normal value of serum CRP. 12 were males and 19 females with male and female ratio of 11.6. The age of the patients ranged from 46-92 years with the mean age of 64.87+14.25 years. The pre-operative serum CRP levels ranged from 4-57.2 mg/L with the mean value of 35.94+19.68 mg/L. Higher values of CRP corresponded with higher TNM staging and poor overall 5-year survival. The study showed that patients with elevated pre-operative serum CRP levels showed the worst prognosis and almost all of them died within five years while the patients with normal CRP were alive even after 5 years of surgical resection. Hence, it can be concluded that elevated pre-operative CRP levels are prognostic indicators in patients with OSCC