Immunohistochemical expression of stathmin in oral potentially malignant disorders and squamous cell carcinoma: An observational study

Context: The term ‘Stathmin’ is derived from ‘Stathmos’, a Greek word meaning ‘relay’. Stathmin has been known to be highly regulated in varieties of cancers and correlates well with cell differentiation, migration and proliferation. Hence, the expression of Stathmin was immunohistochemically evaluated in oral potentially malignant disorders and malignant lesions. Settings and Design: Cases of oral potentially malignant disorders and cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma that have been verified histopathologically were included. The presence and distribution of immunohistochemically positive cells for Stathmin were evaluated. The data were entered on a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and a one-way ANOVA test and Student Independent t -test was used. A P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining score of mild epithelial dysplasia, moderate epithelial dysplasia and severe epithelial dysplasia was 0.16, 0.48, and 0.87, respectively. However, in malignant lesion mean IHC score of well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma, moderately differentiated squamous cell carcinoma and poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma was 0.87, 1.22 and 3.37, respectively. Conclusion: The stathmin expression contributes to the progression of the diseased state, and have a possible role as an early investigative biomarker. However, more research with a larger sample size in addition with molecular analytical techniques could be necessary to definitively govern the association between stathmin and its precise role in malignant lesions.