𝛽-Catenin—a Possible Prognostic Molecular Marker for Recurrence in Histopathologically Negative Surgical Margin of Oral Cancer

The locoregional recurrence in oral cancer is not predicted by the histopathological parameters solely as the normal morphological looking cells harbor the genomic instability which acts as the potential tumor cells for recurrence in future. Therefore, there is an urgent need of the biomarker for prognostic stratification of patients with high risk of disease recurrence and appropriate management. Eighty oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients were included in the study during the period 2012 to 2014 at Apollo Hospitals and Kalinga Institute of Medical sciences, Bhubaneswar. OSCC tissue samples were collected at the time of surgical excision, and immunohistochemistry (IHC) was performed to check the expression of β-catenin in cut margin (CM) and tumor. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS based on clinical and pathological records. It was observed that among 80 patients, 33.75% (27 patients) developed recurrence. The recurrence rate was low for 6 out of 27 patients (22.2%) where β-catenin is positive in tumor and negative in cut margin, while it was quite high in 21 out of 27 (77.8%) when marker is negative in tumor but positive in cut margin (CM). The odds of recurrence among patients having high levels of 𝛽-catenin in CM was 3.6 times higher than the odds of recurrence among patients having lower levels of 𝛽-catenin in CM (p < 0.017). In conclusion, this study highlighted that 𝛽-catenin can be included as a prognostic molecular marker, along with routine histopathological study to influence therapeutic decisions and appropriate management of disease.