Evaluation of levels of knowledge about etiology and symptoms of oral cancer in southern Iran.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge regarding risk factors and primary signs of oral cancer in the general population can help them to avoid risky behaviour and seek timely advice from a physician. The aim of this study was to survey adult knowledge about risk factors and signs of oral cancer in Shiraz Dental University. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this descriptive cross-sectional study using an investigator-made questionnaire, 783 adults who were referred to Shiraz Dental University participated. Questionnaire data were analyzed by ANOVA and T-test. RESULTS: The results showed that 32.3% of participants were aware of oral cancer and gained their knowledge from the media. The risk factors mentioned by these participants was as follows: sunlight 30.8%, hot and peppery food 40.7%, alcoholic drinks 47.4% and smoking 73.6% (there was significant relationship for drinking alcohol and gender, education and times of using dental service, p<0.05). They also mentioned the primary signs of oral cancer as follows: red patch without pain 27.8%, white patch without pain 13.5% and prolong scarring without pain 56.7% (there was significant relationship between these three signs and education and times of using dental service, p<0.05). The mean knowledge about the risk factors and signs of oral cancer were 1.94 from 5 with 1.14 standard deviation and 0.96 from 3 with 0.93 standard deviation. CONCLUSIONS: The observed low level of knowledge of people regarding both risk factors and signs of oral cancer emphasizes the need for more efforts to be made about the above mentioned issues by the media.

Tissue expression, serum and salivary levels of IL-10 in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Head and neck SCC is a common cancer related to various factors. IL-10, a pleiotropic cytokine produced by macrophages, T-helper-2 cells, and B lymphocytes, is thought to play a potential pathogenetic or therapeutic role in a number of human conditions, such as inflammation, autoimmunity and cancer. The present study was designed to evaluate the relation between tissue expression, serum and salivary levels of IL-10 in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) and their correlation with clinicopathologic features. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Samples were collected from 30 patients with HNSCCs and 24 healthy volunteers. IHC analysis was used to examine the tissue expression and ELISA was employed to measure serum and salivary levels. RESULTS: Our study showed tissue expression of IL-10 to be significantily higher in patients (P: 0.001), but there was no relation between tissue expression , serum and salivary levels of the marker (P>0.05). Also except for a positive correlation between tissue expression of IL-10 and stage (P: 0.044), there was no relation between this marker and clinicopathologic features. There was no correlation between serum and salivary levels in either patients or controls. CONCLUSIONS: It seems there is no correlation between level of IL-10 in serum and saliva and this marker in saliva and serum does not reflect tissue expression.

Healing acceleration in hamsters of oral mucositis induced by 5-fluorouracil with topical Calendula officinalis.

OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the potential of topical Calendula officinalis extract on the healing of oral mucositis induced by 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in hamsters. STUDY DESIGN: Oral mucositis was induced in 60 male hamsters by 5-FU (60 mg/kg) on days 0, 5, and 10 of the study. The cheek pouch was scratched with a sterile needle on days 1 and 2. On days 12-17, 5% and 10% C. officinalis gel and gel base groups were treated and then compared with a control group. Macroscopic and microscopic scores and weights were evaluated. RESULTS: Microscopic and macroscopic scores of mucositis were lower in the 5% and 10% C. officinalis gel groups than in the gel base and control groups (P < .05). Weight gain was noted in the treatment groups compared with the gel base and control groups (P < .05). CONCLUSIONS: Calendula officinalis extract accelerated the healing of oral mucositis in hamsters.

Expression of Ki67 and CD105 as proliferation and angiogenesis markers in salivary gland tumors.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between CD105 and tumor cell proliferation in salivary gland tumors. METHODS: In this study, 59 samples of salivary tumors from Khalili Hospital archive, including 20 cases of pleomorphic adenoma (PA), 20 cases of mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) and 19 cases of adenoid cystic carcinoma, as well as 10 cases of normal salivary gland tissue, were reviewed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) for CD105 and Ki67 staining. RESULTS: CD105 positive vessels were absent in normal salivary gland tissue in the vicinity of tumors (51.6% of all tumors were positive). There was a statistically significant difference in frequency of CD105 staining between PA and malignant tumors and between four groups of different lesions (p<0.000) being highest in MEC. Intratumoral microvessel density was also elevated in malignant neoplasms (2.61 ± 3.1) as compared to PA (0.46 ± 0.6). Normal salivary glands did not express Ki67. There was a statistically significant difference in frequency and percentage of Ki67 immunoreactivity in malignant neoplasms (86.5% and 10.7 ± 10.8 respectively) compared to PA (50% and 0.78 ± 0.2) and among the four groups values were highest in MEC (p<0.000). CONCLUSION: n this study, it was observed a higher rate of angiogenesis and cellular proliferation was noted in malignant tumors compared to benign tumors, but no correlation was observed between these two markers.

Serum level of MMP-3 in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma--lack of association with clinico-pathological features.

BACKGROUND: MMP-3 is a proteolytic enzyme of the matrix metalloproteinase family. Protein degradation which is their fundamental action regulates different activities of tumor cell such as their growth, differentiation, apoptosis, migration, invasion, angiogenesis as well as their resistance to the immune system. AIM: The aim of this study was to determine MMP-3 serum levels in patients with OSCC and investigate if they correlate with clinicopathological features. METHOD AND MATERIALS: Using an ELISA kit, we assessed and compared the circulating levels of MMP-3 in blood serum of 45 oral squamous cell carcinoma patients with 45 healthy control samples. RESULTS: The serum MMP-3 level in OSCC patients was significantly higher (9.45±4.6 ng/ml) than healthy controls (5.9±3.6 ng/ml, p<0.001), especially in females and in older patients. However, there was no apparent correlation in serum MMP-3 concentration with the clinico-pathological features such as tumor location, stage, tumor size, nodal status, distant metastasis, histological grade and smoking. DISCUSSION: This result suggests that the measurement of serum MMP-3 concentration might be helpful to diagnose OSCC but not to predict prognosis.

HER2/neu expression in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients is not significantly elevated.

BACKGROUND: HER2/neu, a member of EGFR family, is over expressed in some tumors .The purpose of this study was to determine the salivary level and tissue expression of HER2/neu in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and any correlation with clinicopathologic parameters. METHODS: An enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used to evaluate the salivary level and immunohistochemistry (IHC) to assess tissue expression of HER2/neu in 28 patients with HNSCC and 25 healthy controls. RESULTS: The salivary levels of HER2/neu in HNSCC patients was not significantly higher than in the healthy controls (p>0.005). There was no apparent correlation in salivary HER2/neu level with clinicopathological features such as age, sex, grade, tumor size and nodal status. All HNSCC specimens were positive (membranous or/and cytoplasmic) for HER2/ neu, except one sample. Only one HNSCC specimen was stained in cytoplasm purely. All control specimens were membranous and cytoplasmic positive for HER2/neu. There was a significant difference between cytoplasmic staining in case and control groups (p-value<0.05). CONCLUSION: In our cases, no overexpression of HER2/neu was observed. Thus, our findings suggested that the use of Her-2 as a salivary marker of HNSCC cannot be recommended.

Serum Level of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor in Patients with Different Clinical SubtypeS of Oral Lichen Planus.

BACKGROUND: Oral lichen planus is a chronic inflammatory disease with a poorly understood etiology. The role of angiogenesis in the development of different chronic inflammatory diseases is of great concern. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is an important regulator of angiogenesis. We aimed to evaluate the serum level of VEGF in patients with oral lichen planus compared with normal individuals and consider its clinical significance. METHODS: In this case-control study, 36 serum samples from patients diagnosed with oral lichen planus admitted to the Oral Medicine Department of the School of Dentistry at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (14 men, 22 women, mean [±SD] age: 38.8 [±6.07] years) and 23 serum samples from healthy individuals (9 men, 14 women, mean [±SD] age: 38.7 [±4.9] years) were collected. VEGF concentration was measured using the ELISA method. The Mann-Whitney test was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The serum VEGF level was significantly higher in patients with oral lichen planus compared with the healthy controls (112.97 [±63.2] vs. 66.21 [±56.2] ngr/ml, P<0.001). A similar difference was also observed between the two types of oral lichen planus, being more pronounced in the erosive form (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Serum VEGF can be used as a useful and suitable marker to scrutinize the disease activity.

Comparing the effect of 3 orthognathic surgical methods on the mandibular range of movement.

BACKGROUND: Mandibular setback for the treatment of mandibular prognathism is a common orthogenetic surgical procedure carried out using various intraoral and extraoral methods. Reduced mandibular movement range (MMR) is one of the common complications of this surgery. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to compare the reduction of MMR after 3 surgical procedures including sagittal split osteotomy (SSO), intraoral vertical ramus osteotomy (IVRO), extraoral vertical ramus osteotomy (EVRO). METHODS: In this clinical trial, 150 patients with mandibular prognathism were divided into 3 groups of 50 patients. In the first group, mandibular setback was performed using SSO; in the second group, we used IVRO, and EVRO was the method used in the third group. In each group, before and 3 months after the surgery, maximum interincisal opening and the range of right and left lateral and protrusive movements were measured and compared. RESULTS: Although the mean amount of MMR reduced in all the groups, it was not equal in all the groups. Sagittal split osteotomy and the EVRO resulted in the most and least reduction of MMR, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Reduced MMR is one of the complications of SSO, IVRO, and EVRO; however, SSO resulted in the most and EVRO in the least effect on limitation of movement after surgery.

Polymorphism of tumor protein p53 codon 72 showed no association with oral lichen planus in Shiraz, Iran.

BACKGROUND: Oral lichen planus (OLP) is a chronic relapsing inflammatory disease involving T-lymphocyte aggression targeted to the basal layer of the oral mucosa. The tumor suppressor tumor protein p53 (TP53), located on chromosome 17, has been involved in various malignancies. OBJECTIVE: This study was undertaken to investigate the association of p53 codon 72 polymorphism with OLP in Southern Iranian patients. METHODS: Twenty-five patients with lichen planus and 93 healthy blood donors as control group were recruited. DNA from peripheral blood mononuclear cells was extracted and amplified using allele-specific polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: The frequency of homozygotic arginine (Arg) at codon 72 was 44% in the patients and 37.6% in the controls; for homozygotic proline (Pro), it was 24% and 15.15%, respectively, and for heterozygotic arginine/proline, it was 32% and 47.3%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The polymorphism in codon 72 of the TP53 gene was not associated with the OLP in Iranian patients.

Prognostic significance of stromal eosinophilic infiltration in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Tumor-associated tissue eosinophilia (TATE) has been described in many sites, including head and neck. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and possible role of TATE as a prognostic factor in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Seventy-six consecutive patients with a diagnosis of OSCC were evaluated, and the number of eosinophils was obtained in 3 different areas in the tumor. The possible role of TATE as a prognostic factor in OSCC was investigated with respect to tumor differentiation; perineural, vascular, and muscular invasion (histopathologic parameters); and locoregional metastasis (clinical parameter). Tumor-associated tissue eosinophilia was low in most cases in 3 different areas. The mean eosinophil count was higher in the invasive front of tumor than intratumoral stroma and stroma subjacent the surface epithelium. The relations between TATE and tumor differentiation; perineural, vascular, and muscular invasion; and locoregional metastasis were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Tumor-associated tissue eosinophilia has no correlation with prognostic parameters in OSCC.