Expression of cyclin A is related to progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma in Taiwan

Cyclin A is required for DNA synthesis during the S phase and progression through the G2/M transition. Increased expression of cyclin A protein has been correlated with poor prognosis in a variety of human tumors. To investigate the possible influence(s) of cyclin A protein on the progression and prognosis of oral squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) in Taiwan. We examined the expression of cyclin A in oral SCC, epithelial dysplasia (ED) and normal oral mucosa (NOM) by immunohistochemistry using antibodies to cyclin A. Results and Conclusions. The mean labeling indices (LI) in NOM, ED and SCCs were 7.0+/-3.1%, 12.1+/-13.9% and 21.3+/-12.3%, respectively. The cyclin A LI for oral SCCs was significantly higher than that for NOM (P=0.002) or ED (P<0.001). In addition, a high LI for cyclin A was found to correlate with advanced stage (P=0.0048), larger tumor size (P=0.0017), lymph node involvement (P=0.0006) and cancer recurrence (P<0.0001). The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed patients with tumors containing more than 15% cyclin A-positive cells had significantly shorter overall survival than those with tumors containing less than 15% cyclin A-positive cells (P<0.00001). These results indicate that overexpression of cyclin A protein is associated with tumor progression and patient prognosis for oral SCC. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.