B-ENT

RANK and RANKL expression lack prognostic significance in squamous cell carcinomas with mandibular invasion

1.

Clinic of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Department of Translational Surgery and Medicine, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy

2.

Section of Anatomic Pathology, Department of Surgery and Translational Medicine, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy

B-ENT 2019; 15: 191-196
Read: 740 Downloads: 534 Published: 13 December 2019

Objectives: Mandible management is important in the surgical treatment of oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) that are proximal to or that have invaded the mandible. This retrospective study investigated the prognostic impact of invasion.

Materials and methods: We analysed 58 consecutive OSCC patients with clinical or radiological signs of bone infiltration that underwent marginal mandibular resection (n = 35) or segmental mandibular resection (n = 23) between 2010 and 2014. The expression of RANK/RANKL was analysed in the tested samples. These molecules are part of the signalling pathway that regulates osteoclast activation and differentiation.

Results: Patients with segmental mandibulectomy and local recurrence had a worse prognosis (p = 0.084 and p = 0.071). Tumour size was an independent significant predictor of reduced survival (p = 0.048), but bone invasion was not (p = 0.950). Immunoarray analysis detected no RANKL expression, but 21 patients expressed RANK on the surface of the tumour.

Conclusions: In this cohort, bone invasion was not an independent prognostic factor when covariates such as tumour size were taken into consideration. These results indicate that bone invasion has a minor prognostic impact on the survival of patients with OSCC. Moreover, the correlation between RANK and RANKL expression and mandible invasion by OSCC showed that their expression did not have prognostic significance.

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