Association between Tissue Expression of Toll-Like Receptor and Some Clinicopathological Indices in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background: The oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) composes about ۹۰% of all head and neck cancers. The toll-like receptor (TLR)+ immune cells have potential of invasion and malignancy transformation. The aim of this study was assessment of possible associations between clinicopathological indices and TLR۲ and TLR۹ gene expression in OSCC. Methods: Forty-two OSCC samples with related healthy margins including ۲۵ early and ۱۷ advanced stages were gathered. The samples were classified histologically from grade I to II. The expression of TLR۲ and TLR۲ was evaluated by Real-time PCR. The patient’s disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were analyzed using SPSS V.۲۳ software. Results: The expression of TLR۲ and TLR۹ genes in tumor tissues (especially in grade I and II) were higher than healthy surgical margin tissue (p< ۰.۰۰۱). TLR۹ expression in grade II was statistically significant than grade I in tumor tissue (p< ۰.۰۰۱). TLR۹ expression in advanced stage was statistically significant in compare to early stage (p= ۰.۰۱۲). In advanced stage both overall survival (p= ۰.۰۲۹) and disease-free survival (p= ۰.۰۱۲) were statistically lower than early stage. The follow-up time to recurrence in advanced stage was statistically lower than early stage (p= ۰.۰۰۷). Conclusions: Overexpression of TLRs ۲, ۹ play role in the pathogenesis and tumor development of OSCC and can be applied as biomarker in prognostic approaches.

Keywords:

Disease-free survival , Oral squamous cell carcinoma , Overall survival , TLR۲ , TLR۹.