Stathmin! An immunohistochemical analysis of the novel marker in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Oral Leukoplakia.

BACKGROUND: Stathmin is an intracellular phosphoprotein that controls the microtubule dynamics by further regulating proper attachment and alignment of chromosomes in a dividing cell. Thus, any mutation or aberrantly expressed protein that reduces the fidelity of spindle assembly will enhance chromosomal instability contributing to aneuploidy. Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma is an extensively studied malignancy that occurs due to accumulated genetic changes due to carcinogens. The current study is done to evaluate the stathmin role and its expression in OSCC and Oral epithelial dysplasia (OED). OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of stathmin in OSCC and Oral dysplasia and also to correlate the expression of Stathmin with respect to the different histopathological grades of OED and OSCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 30 neutral buffered formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissues of Oral Leukoplakia/OED and 30 FFPE tissues of OSCC were subjected to immunohistochemistry with stathmin antibody. Five fields of each case with 300 cells were examined and a mean percentage of positive-stained slides were determined. The percentages were recorded accordingly with their respective histological grades. The results were analysed statistically. RESULTS: The results of the present study demonstrated higher mean values of stathmin in tissues with OSCC (2.50) compared to leukoplakia (2.11) and normal tissues (0.00) with a high level of statistical significance (0.0001). There is also an increase in the percentage levels of stathmin with increase in the histological grade of differentiation in OSCC as well as leukoplakia. CONCLUSION: The present study found a statistical correlation between increased grades of the disease with expression levels of stathmin. This confirms that stathmin expression can contribute to disease progression and that stathmin might have a potential role as an early diagnostic biomarker and can be a therapeutic target for OSCC. 
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Early diagnosis of an isolated primary peripheral T-cell lymphoma masquerading as massive gingival enlargement in a pediatric patient.

Lymphomas are malignant neoplasm of the lymphocyte cell lines, classified as either Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). NHL comprises a heterogeneous group of lymphoid neoplasm arising from B-cell, T-cell or natural killer cell with a spectrum of behavior ranging from relatively indolent to highly aggressive and potentially fatal. Peripheral T-cell lymphoma, a variant of NHL, is a disease characterized by the presence of diffuse lymphadenopathy, extranodal involvement, classical B symptoms such as fever (>100.4°F) for 3 consecutive days, weight loss exceeding 10% of body weight in 6 months and drenching night sweats with a tendency for recurrence. Among NHLs, extranodal presentations are relatively common. Extranodal presentation particularly in the oral cavity is very rare and may misinterpret the diagnosis. Lesions of this type should be cautiously dealt especially in pediatric patients and young adolescents. The present case report is about an atypical presentation of disease process in a 15-year-old male patient, which was diagnosed early with the help of a combination of histopathology and immunohistochemistry techniques.

Sex determination using maxillary sinus.

BACKGROUND: Individual identification is a subtle concept and often one of the most important priorities in mass disasters, road accidents, air crashes, fires, and even in the investigation of criminal cases. Matching specific features detected on the cadaver with data recorded during the life of an individual is an important aspect in forensics, and can be performed by fingerprint analysis, deoxyribonucleic acid matching, anthropological methods, radiological methods and other techniques which can facilitate age and sex identification. Sinus radiography is one such method that has been used for determination of the sex of an individual. Hence, an attempt is being made to use the different dimensions of the maxillary sinus in the determination of sex using coronal and axial sections of plain computed tomography (CT) scan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 30 patients including 17 male and 13 female, visiting the Outpatient Department of the Mamata General Hospital were included as the study subjects. The dimensions of right and left maxillary sinuses of 30 subjects from plain CT were measured using SYNGO software and statistical analysis was done. RESULTS: Sex determination using height, length, width, and volume of the maxillary sinus on both sides showed statistically significant results with a higher percentage of sexual dimorphism in the case of volume. CONCLUSION: Volume of the right maxillary sinus can be used as accurate diagnostic parameter for sex determination.

Necrotizing sialometaplasia: a diagnostic dilemma.

Necrotizing sialometaplasia is a benign self-limiting lesion of both major and minor salivary glands although more commonly the latter. The clinical and histological similarity between this entity and a malignant lesion implies a risk of unnecessary radical treatment. We report a case of necrotizing sialometaplasia in middle aged women presenting as a non-ulcerated swelling. This case illustrates the need for careful analysis of a biopsy specimen for a correct diagnosis.

Glut-1 as a prognostic biomarker in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

INTRODUCTION: Glut-1 is a glucose transporter protein, the expression of which is upregulated in malignant cells which show increased glucose uptake. Alterations in expression of Glut-1 have been reported in several pre-malignant and malignant lesions. The objectives of the present study were to compare the expression of Glut-1 in normal persons and in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), to correlate the expression of Glut-1 with respect to clinical staging of OSCC and to evaluate the expression of Glut-1 with respect to different histopathological grades of OSCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty cases of OSCC were staged clinically and graded histopathologically. Immunohistochemical method was used to detect the expression of Glut-1 in OSCC and the same was compared with the normal subjects. The scores were compared using the chi-square test. RESULTS: Glut-1 expression was detected in all grades of OSCC. A significant correlation with a P value of 0.00004 was found in immunostaining between normal and OSCC. The expression of Glut-1 was significant when compared with different clinical stages with significant P value of 0.0004 and in different histopathological grades of OSCC with a P value of 0.00001. CONCLUSION: Higher immunohistochemical staining scores were obtained with increased clinical staging and histopathological grades of OSCC. High expression of Glut-1 may be related to poor prognosis in OSCC.

Granular cell ameloblastoma of jaw - Report of a case with an emphasis on its characterization.

Ameloblastoma is a neoplasm of odontogenic epithelium, especially of enamel organ-type tissue that has not undergone differentiation to the point of hard tissue formation. It accounts for approximately 10% of all tumors originating from gnathic bones. It exhibits diverse microscopic patterns which occurs either singly or in combination with other patterns. Granular cell ameloblastoma is a rare condition, accounting for 3.5% of all ameloblastoma cases that shows marked transformation in the cytoplasm of tumor cells, which are usually stellate reticulum like cells. The transformed cells possess very coarse, granular, eosinophilic cytoplasm. The "granular change" is thought to be due to a dysfunctional status of neoplastic cells, and the pathogenesis of this tumour seems to be age-related. Ultrastructural, histochemical, and immunohitochemical studies have revealed that cytoplasmic granularity is caused by overload; however the mechanism ivolved remains poorly understood. This article describes a case of granular cell variant of ameloblastoma affecting a 55-year old female. Key words:Ameloblastoma, granular cell, odontogenic tumor.

Oral metastasis of chondroblastic osteosarcoma.

Osteosarcoma is the most common primary malignant mesenchymal tumor, accounting for approximately 20% of sarcomas, with 5% incidence in the jaws. They present various clinical and histological aspects as well as variable disease prognosis and outcome. About 50% of all osteosarcomas are osteoblastic, 25% fibroblastic, 25% chondroblastic. Metastasis of osteosarcoma in the oral cavity is rare, and very few cases have been described so far in the literature. This article presents a metastatic case of chondroblastic osteosarcoma in the mandibular right-attached gingiva arising from 4(th) rib. This case report further suggests that chondroblastic osteosarcoma has poor prognosis.